


Knightmare

by Dantegrey



Category: RWBY
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-06
Updated: 2016-10-06
Packaged: 2018-08-19 21:21:44
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 26,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8225158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dantegrey/pseuds/Dantegrey
Summary: [AU/Oneshot] Legends always carried a sliver of truth among the lies. Jaune has discovered it. Once he hit rock bottom, he couldn t but claw his way up. Just in time, to face a crazy Fall Maiden and a Primal Grimm. Fate does seems to have an ax to grind with his sorry ass.Repost of my Fic from F.F





	

**RWBY AU/Slight Crossover with Scion/Oneshot**

**Tower of Beacon/** **The Battle of Vale**

Having a Dragon the size of a football camp after your ass, was never a good thing.

But Jaune Arc just sighed and continued walking to his execution. He was not deluding himself about the possibility of winning the day, Cinder Fall has kicked Ozpins ass all the ways to Sunday and the old Headmaster of Beacon was leagues above Jaune. But, Jaune knew something that Cinder did not, it was not a comforting thought, but it gave him hope and angered him at the same time.

Grimm feed in negative emotions. Right now, Jaune was a massive beacon of barely contained anger, fury, hate and sadness. His aura rolled in ways over his form, slowly illuminating his way into the collapsed halls of the destroyed tower of the Headmaster of Beacon Academy. There were a lot of good memories in this place, generations of Hunters; he preferred that term to the usual Huntsman and Huntress. That grew and learned how to fight the Grimm in this same halls. A lot of shady business run inside these walls too, it was logical, the Headmaster or Headmistress of an Academy like this was entitled to a lot of bullshit, finding its way into their desks.

Not the first time Jaune pondered how on earth did Ozpin and Miss Goodwitch managed to run this Academy without slitting their own throats at the paperwork that was needed daily. Jaune had the nagging suspicion that it has something to do with the eternal mug that Ozpin always carried on his person, any mortal who drank so much coffee or anything of the sorts, would be dead at the third day of such a diet. But Ozpin, idiosyncrasies apart, the old man was a constant in the lives of the young hunters of Beacon. The all-knowing Headmaster that always knew what to do.

But somehow, Cinder Fall has managed to pull a fast one in their noses, with anyone, being the wiser, about the shitstorm that was coming their way. Jaune has recently being told, that the fall of the mightiest empires always started with little things, inconsequential things. Like the proverbial pebble that unleashed an avalanche. It all started with hundreds of Dust stores being robbed, suddenly Dust was stolen even from the small shops that covered Vale, specially in the city nearby of Beacon.

It was not a surprise, Beacon was home of hundreds of young Hunters, they used Dust in their weapons, armors and even Semblances; and they had to buy it from the nearest store. Opening a Dust shop in front of an Academy of Hunters was always a sure business, however, Dust is expensive, and one has to have a very keen business mind to make profit of the material that practically was the blood of all the Four Kingdoms.

Jaune weapons did not use Dust, _Crocea Mors_ was only a sword. Unbreakable, never dulling, always sharp sword; that only had a mecha-shift mechanism to turn its sheathe into an equally sturdy shield with the Arc symbol proudly displayed on it. Ironically, it was not even his own weapon, Jaune took it without permission when he run out of home, determined to be a Hunter or die trying. Right now, Jaune would have taken his younger self half by the balls and smashed his head over a sturdy surface, until all his delusions vanished from the head trauma.

The young Hunter has already learned a valuable lesson. Learned in blood, tears and sweat:

There is no free meal.

Mark this phrase, put into a pedestal and made your god of it.

Jaune came into Beacon being little more than a common boy, not precisely talented, carrying a sword that he know nothing about how to handle and with the head in the clouds about to become a hero. Reality soon bitch slapped him, hard, long and without lube. He really hit the bottom on those days; a miracle that he did not turn to drugs or alcohol.Only his friends showed him a silver line on those dark days, but even with their help, Jaune knew that he was nothing but dead weight for them.

There was a saying that states that once one has hit rock bottom, you can only go up. For Jaune was something similar, he did hit rock bottom, face front and smashing his head against all the rocks on the way down; until something come and kick his sorry ass into gear. Horrible vacations those, horrible, horrible vacations where he suffered beyond belief but that he would repeat with the eyes closed and with a hand tied to his back.No pain, No gain; another lesson carved into his skull through the constant torture that was the training one of his strangest relatives.

Arcs were a unique bunch, anyone who has met one of them could testify that. But few understand how deeply unique were the Arcs. All the family could trace their lineage to an age of wonder that occurred way before the moon shattered and the Grimm haunted the humanity. Jaune was not different, however, he has not trained, nor being prepared to be a Hunter. His parents, loving as they were, and his seven sisters, perhaps doted the boy too much. He was the youngest of the Arc children, all of them already Huntress or in important places in all the Kingdoms.

Jaune did not hate his parents nor his sisters for filling his head with adventures and tales of the heroic deeds of the Hunters all over Remnant and never allowing him to train to be one of them. The life of the Hunter is not easy, is hard, nasty and full of sacrifices that no one would ever recognize or even remember. Dozens of unknown heroes gave their life daily for the Kingdoms, dying at the hands of the Grimm or the White Fang or all the criminal elements that plague the Kingdoms.

After meeting a Councilor of Vale, Jaune was sure that humanity was doomed. They are not incompetent, no, no; that was not the problem. They are quite competent in management of resources, but unfortunately, that is. They did not care a Beowolf shit about the people that are under their charge. They worry about the economy and how to kept their asses on their chairs. A village has been overwhelmed by Grimm?, sure they will lament the loss, but not the loss of the people but the food and the money that the farms, mines or whatever, generated.

After his hellish training, Jaune has grown a lot more jaded with the world in general. Seeing how idiotic humanity could be, has cut short a lot of his positive image of Remnant. But at the same time, it made people like Ruby or Nora, stand like beacons in the middle of an ocean of bitterness and darkness. Ruby, that cute red ridding hood reaper was still a child at heart; much like him, don’t get him wrong; but seeing her smile always cheer him up.

Well, Jaune would always be an adorkable; adorkable, is that even a word?, well, if the shoe fits; knight that will put his boot in his mouth several times a day, even if he just wanted to be polite. However, and that made his day, Weiss said that his new clothes were a bit more respectable. Jaune abandoned his old and torn hoodie, instead he wore a white shirt, a sleeveless blue vest with the golden Arc symbol over his heart, a blue tie and his usual jeans and sneakers, along black fingerless gloves. Weiss said it suited him, and for once it was without any sarcasm. Coco insisted on him wearing black glasses or a hat, but Jaune, although appreciated that a girl like Coco give him the time of the day, didn’t really felt like wearing those accessories.

That made his day, but he was not going to enjoy it much longer, he was walking right at his own death sentence. Facing Cinder Fall at the peak of her powers and a Primal Grimm like that bloody Dragon that was sweating hordes of Grimm, was not precisely helping to his survival probabilities. Alas, he has to do it. He has lieto Pyrrha, shoving her into a weapon locker and sent her flying into Vale, following the coordinates of the rest of JNPR scrolls.

On a side note of things, the lips of Pyrrha did taste as amazing as he always mussed they would taste. Jaune was still smiling like an idiot after the looong kiss he had with the Invincible girl. Sue him, even after all the shit he has gone through, he was still a teenager, and Pyrrha was hotness incarnate.

Now, he was alone in the tower, well, not entirely true. After his training, Jaune has developed a lot extra tricks that a lot of Hunters would have sold their souls for. Among them, enhanced senses that allow him to perceive the presence of Auras and Grimm. There was an old flick that he saw once, a movie that told the tale of Immortal Hunters that has to kill each other until there was only one left. They could sense each other, that how they found each other all around the world.In a sense, Jaune could do something similar, but with Auras and Grimm.

Cinder Fall, the queen bitch of all this monster show, was a red flaring blaze that crowned the tower. Mercury Black was a sliver of quicksilver that flows and twirled under the flame and Emerald Sustrai was a mirage of colors, dulled and covered in darkness and sadness. Grimm on the other hand, are like nails in the head, pieces of black spots that appeared from nowhere. Except the Dragon, that was putting his head into tar.

They were at the top of the tower, possibly gloating about their success.And if Jaune was reading right, the Aura of Cinder, she was expecting something, possibly Pyrrha.

Taking his scroll of his jacket, Jaune checked the device, sighing with relief at the data displayed on the screen. Pyrrhas weapon locker has already arrived to the position of Ren and Nora. Boy, Pyrrha is going to be mad for this stunt, fortunately, he was not going to live to suffer the wrath of the redhead goddess of war, neither Nora breaking his legs, so he would not do something as stupid as this, again.

With a snarl of disgust, Jaune saw how Cinder was broadcasting the entire destruction of Vale. The images would plunge the entire population into despair and make the Grimm appear by the hundreds, attracted by the negative emotions that the survivors must be suffering right now. Emotions are the quintessence of humanity weakness and strength at the same time, they gave them the will to face the darkness and at the same time, feed that same darkness. Gods had a nasty sense of humor, Jaune know well, he meet one.

It bugged him how was possible for Mercury to be standing and recording all these. If, what he was seeing was live and not previously recorded from somewhere. But, judging from the point of view and the explosion that he saw from the windows Jaune passed by, it must be on the top of the Tower, same place where he was sensing Mercurys aura. After, how Yang broke his leg in such a brutal way, he should be recovering, not even Aura could heal broken bones that fast, well, Jaune could, but that was his little secret. He was an Arc after all.

Now that he was on the butt side of the joke, Jaune frowned and as he walked, keep thinking about how has things torn up so bad, so quick. This has not happened suddenly; it was impossible. Too many coincidences and events, so conveniently happening; that Jaune has to think about foul play. Suddenly all the robots of Atlas turning against them?, yeah sure, unless they had a Semblance that allow them to control tech, something still to be seen, there must be another trick. Only Ironwood had access to such level of control and he was not a traitor. He was fighting down there, as the rest of the Hunters, so he could not be responsible of turning his own robots against him.

Not to mention, he would never sacrifice Penny like that. No matter what everybody and their mother said, Pyrrha has not killed Penny voluntarily.There was something amiss in all the tournament, it started with Coco and Yatsuhashi. Jaune know both, thanks to his friendship with Velvet, speaking of which, he could see her unleashing hell over the Grimm with that copy Semblance of hers.

“ _Give them hell,_ _you beautiful_ _bunny”_ laughed Jaune in his mind, passing through a broken window and eying the fires of the night.

The senses of the young knight were already on superhuman levels thanks to his Aura, bigger than even veteran Hunters. The addition of the legacy of the Arcs only may it even more exceptional. If he forced his sight a little, he could even see Pyrrha and the rest of the crew in the distance. He preferred not to do, seeing her in tears would have broken down his resolve and made him think twice, about the stupidity he was about to do.

He thought about when everything started to annoy him; Coco and Yatsuhashi, year two seniors with a lot of mission on their backs. All their acting in the tournament seems odd, however, Jaune chalked it to the Tournament nerves, the situation and the unknown semblances and tricks their enemies had. Mercury was capable of going toe to toe with Pyrrha and Emerald has been seen butchering Grimm with insulting easiness.

Then, when the one on one battles took place, Yang broke Mercurys legs for the heck of it. She swore that Mercury has attacked her and she reacted. A phenomenal brawler as Yang would react instinctively to any attack, it was bread and butter for any Hunter. So, why broke the legs of an enemy she has already defeated?, Jaune was not that close to Yang, but the girl wore her emotions in her sleeves and she was not the kind of person that would have done something so ruthless and cruel without any good reason.

Another chalk into Jaunes mental chalkboard; he really should have seen all this before. It was confusing and directly odd, how come no one has seen it?. Jaune knew that people booed Yang and the personnel of Atlas took the blonde brawler into custody. It was sad, such a vibrating person as Yang, dragged in cuffs like that. Not really counting that funny adventure in Juniors bar, poor man, she trashed the place for good, along the twins that work there as bouncers.

Jaune knew the Malachite twins. A week after he ended his training with his relative, he dragged him and an old friend of him called Qrow; later Jaune discovered he was Ruby and Yangs uncle; into Juniors bar, to celebrate Jaunes training end. Jaune drank with them and the next morning, he awoke in the middle of the twins, naked and in the middle of a trashed apartment that reek of sexual activities. To say he felt embarrassed and oddly proud of himself at the same time, would be the understatement of the year. Not that the Malachite twins were not beautiful on their own, they were exceptionally beautiful women that Jaune got to know better latter...and sometimes doing an encore. They were friends with benefits, nothing more, but even then, Jaune worried about them and Junior. The bearded man can be a Yakuza bastard but he was another soul trying to make a living, and he was one of the most tolerable evils that Jaune has meet so far.

After Pyrrha fought Penny and practically torn her apart, everything went to hell in a basket. There was little time to think about anything that wasn’t survival. The Dragon, the Grimm, the robots turning on the humans; it was a bloody mess. Jaune and the rest of the crew, JNPR and RWBY the teams that were crafting quite the good reputation in Beacon, had to fight teeth and nails to gain some respite from the constant attacks of robots and Grimm and the occasional idiot that wanted to took advantage of the mess to settle the numbers. Bands of criminals the last ones mostly.

Jaune saw Pyrrha run back to Beacon, frankly, Jaune didn’t understand why was she running, but when he accompanied his redheaded partner and was made part of the Maiden tale and see the pod of Amber; Jaune knew that the shit has hit the fan. Truth to be told, if he has seen it before his training, he would have been there, observing the pod dumbfounded and not understanding what on earth was all this about.

But after his training, Jaune was not the same boy. He had changed, mentally and physically, in just three months and enough suffering for several lifetimes, the bumbling fool that was Jaune Arc, became another type of bumbling fool. Power and the shit, can only make you so far, its how do you use that power what reveals what kind of person you were. A lesson that his relative show him, in painful manner; he was convinced that the pain taught better than anything else.

But at the end, Jaune knew a lot of things that very few people know, among those, the legend of the Maidens and the Old man. Boy, if only Ozpin knew, Jaune was sure that he could have helped Amber, unfortunately, keeping the secret was a need. Not Ozpin, not Jaune knew that the other could have helped each other, perhaps even stopping this nightmare and the deaths that, inevitably, are going to occur before all of these stops, for good or bad.

Secrets are secrets for a reason. Ironically, it only helps the cause of the Grimm. However, there are things like the Maidens and where do their powers come from, that should be kept in a circle as little as possible. People would come to them in troves, waiting for the solution of all their problems, like they were bloody walking miracles that can solve anything with magic. They can use magic, but they are not omnipotent beings, that would be preposterous, not even the gods were omnipotent, neither their parents the Titans. They can die, the consequences are disastrous, but they can die. The Maidens, the Silver eyed warriors, the Arcs, all the secrets are kept by those that are designed to be worthy of them. Sometimes, like the Battle for Vale, it ended in a very bad note. Shit happens, the alternative; a world totally controlled by entities that are crazy as hell and believe themselves over all; is way worse.

See the previous note about how Jaune was jagged a lot since his training. There is a saying that Ignorance is bliss; false, Ignorance is bloody multiple orgasm. Knowledge, there are people that sought it during all their lives, and it was a good thing, but there are knowledge that should be forgotten or torched as soon as they came to light. Jaune wanted to be stronger for his team, for his family and for himself. Now that he was stronger, stronger than he could possible believe and wiser than he liked to be; did he start to think that he should have been a baker, back in his hometown.

But Jaune was an Arc, they are quite the late bloomers in the hero department. There is no Arc that has not smashed his head against a wall and finally discovered what he really wanted. They had fought too much for so little, that they soon learned to take things in stride and keep going. Unfortunately for Jaune, he was going to die tonight, maybe he could take a monster down with him, but he was pretty much convinced that this, was his last night.

As, everybody else, Jaunes life has had his ups and downs. From his family to JNPR and the adventures he lived with the people of Beacon. Truth to be told, Jaune was starting to realize how idiotic his travel into Beacon, truly was. A civilian, with basic understanding of how to handle a sword without chopping his own arm and without Aura unlocked, entered into one of the most prestigious Hunter Academies of the Four Kingdoms.It looked like a joke line, lamely, the joke was on Jaune. He survived, thanks in great part, to the help of his team, JNPR and his partner, the Invincible girl, Pyrrha Nykos. What on earth did he do in a past life to gain the friendship of such a wonderful lass?. He has no idea, but it was good for what is lasted. Approximately fifteen seconds, ten of them invested into a french kiss that curled their toes.

Well, at last he would die without being a virgin, gods bless those naughty glorious minxes of the Malachite twins. Jaune truly prayed for their safety, they were good fighters, of that he was sure, however, against a horde of Grimm it was a matter of endurance. Stood your ground against hordes and hordes, until you killed them all. Like dealing with a plague, you kill, and kill, and kill until there is no plague left. Grimm are even worse, as you kill thousands of them and there are still millions left.

The system was fucked as hell, but those are the cards that Remnant has dealt to the humanity and the Faunus. Speaking of which, Jaune saw how the White Fang was attacking any non-faunus in the streets and he just wanted to bash their skulls against the mask of an Ursa, to see if they finally awoke of their bloody delusions and realize that there is no Us against Humanity, but Together against the bloody Grimm. Blake must be having it the hardest of all, she was White Fang since day one. One of the older sisters of Jaune was a cat Faunus, exactly like Blake. It was easy for the youngest Arc to put two and two together after he saw the bow twitch a couple of times.

Faunus were nothing but another bunch of sorry sods, that had to dealt with even worse cards that the rest, although, Jaune has always envied their enhanced senses and other perks that came with their races. Even now, that he was way over a common human, Aura enhancements be hax yo, he still considered the extra capabilities of the Faunus unfair. That was something that he never understood, Faunus are just humans with extra titbits on them. What did it matter that your partner has rabbit ears?, frankly, if Pyrrha had a set of fox ears and a fluffy tail, Jaune would have hadenormousdifficulties to even spoke to her. Jaune was a teenager, porn with Faunus was not as rare as one would like to believe, and Fox girls has always been his favorites.

As Jaune walked into an open space inside of the tower, he found a bunch of Beowolves and Creeps stumbling around the corridors. Jaune ignored completely the Grimm, looking for something that could jog his memories as he was sure that he has seen the room before. It didn’t take long for him to notice that he was in the Ballroom. The place where he wore a dress and danced with Pyrrha, so good memories those. Anyhow, seeing the place wrecked and overwhelmed with Grimm, pissed Jaune more than he thought.

The metallic cry of his weapon exiting his sheathe, called the attention of the Grimm, who roared and snarled at Jaune, before they charged over the crumbled stones and wreckage of the room. What was a very nice and luminous place, has become a lair for shadowy and obscure things that were hunting for their next prey. But this prey counterattacked, he was an apprentice Hunter after all, a Hunter in training, if one wanted to be specific.

In the past, Jaune would have been scared shitless of what was charging at him. A quartet of Beowolves, Creeps and several Boartucks, but the Jaune Arc that was alone, that was sure that was going to die; had nothing to lose, ergo, he could go all out and reveal what he has learned in the three months of hell that his relative has put him through. He was strong now, strong enough to crush this Grimm like ants, however, he was not so free to do it, in front of his friends. That would lead to some awkward answers and truths that they were not ready to face. Neither was Jaune, but they were showed down his throat; literally in a case; and then the truth was revealed to him. There was no rest for the wicked since then.

The first on reach his position was a Boarstuck, not even giving a second glance to the boar Grimm thing, Jaune stomped his foot on his mask, crushing it and sprawling the black flesh of the Grimm all over the floor. Next, he swung his sword in a wide arc and cut a snarling Beowolf by the jaw, the beast had in open, so Jaune beheaded the beast. _Crocea Mors_ decapitated the thing like it was made of butter.

Recovering from the swing, Jaune rose his sword and cut another Beowolf in half from the snout to the crotch. Letting the eviscerated carcass pass at his side, as he stepped forward, with his free hand, punched a third Beowolf in the chest. The strength of the punch was more than enough to create a hole in the body of the Beowolf, from where all its internal organs exited from its insides, in a shower of black pieces of flesh.

Kicking the already decomposing carcass, Jaune gave another step forward and jumped over the bunch of Creeps, landing right in the middle of them, with enough force to create a crater in the stone floor of the tower. The impact sent the half a dozen Creeps into the air, letting Jaune cut them all in a circular swing that send pieces of Creep flying, into the walls of the Ballroom.

Without even looking at the chopped Creeps, Jaune moved again, dodging the attack of the fourth Beowolf. The tall Grimm has jumped at him, claws first and jaws open. Jaune duck and when the Beowulf was passing over him, he thrown a demolishing uppercut that sent the Beowolf against the ceiling of the Ballroom. Thirty feet over them. The Beowolf crashed against the ceiling, all its inner organs exploded from the pressure, as he left a crater of the already damaged ceiling of the battered tower.

Sighing, Jaune sheathed back _Crocea Mors_ and jumped over the edge of the crater he has made in the middle of the room. Smiling to himself, he even made a silly dance, imitating the improvised dance that JNPR made during the Prom. If not, his team were great dancers and soon picked up the Tempo of the dancing, not really a surprise the video went viral as soon as it hit the CCTS net. They were quite good, at dancing, and no matter what anyone says, Jaune definitely rocked the dress.

This Grimm were nothing but cannon fodder. That bullshit Dragon of Mount Glenn that Cinder has managed to summon by provoking massive negative reactions, was really pissing off Jaune. It should be illegal to create Grimm that fast and in so many quantities. But the Dragon was nothing but a relic of a bygone era, that thing should have died eons ago. Somehow Cinder and the puppeteer that really hold her strings managed to awoke the bastard and toss him at Vale. With the ability to create unlimited Grimms and its own massive size. Easily dwarfed a football camp. The bloody Dragon was a danger that none in Vale expected.

Still, Jaune was sure that all the honored Councilors would have already evacuated to the secure Airships of Atlas, full to the brim with cannons. Enough cannons to keep the Griffons and the Nevermores at a distance, and keeping the Dragon with an eye on them. Even for the Primal Grimm, being shot by such a number of Airships was dangerous. For the moment, the Dragon was happy with tearing the tower apart and sweating horde after horde of lesser Grimm to deal with all the people on the ground. The same people that was keeping the Airship to bomb everything to kingdom come and get the hell out of there.

Even if Jaune did not personally meet Ironwood, his relative has already told him that his heart was in the right place, but his methods and mind, not so much. Jaune really hoped that Ironwood did not get feed up with the situation and just call a bombardment over the tower. Jaune had the nagging suspicion that only the absence of intel was preventing the general of taking that route, still thinking that Amber, the Fall Maiden, was in the tower and that Pyrrha was in her way to become the next Maiden. Honestly, Jaune did not like it at all, the responsibilities of the Maidens were bigger than they believed. The revealing chat he had with his relative was more than enough to made Jaune know that the power of the Maidens was way more serious and dangerous that the people believed.

Not really a surprise, not much was known of either the Silver eyes and the Arcs, just legends and rumors. None of them true and yet, all of them with a sliver of truth hiding inside. Usually, legends are like that, hiding the truth behind a wall of lies.

The stairs to the next level were broken and Jaune cursed loudly, he didn’t really want to climb all the way up barehanded, that would be a complete drag. But, beggars can be choosers and putting his headphones in his ears, he rolled down the selections of songs of his scroll into some training music and started to climb the wreckage. It was easy as hell for his bare hands, to pierce stone, burying his hands, a digit deep, into the hard stone and concrete. It was not as preposterous as one could think, any veteran Hunter had enough strength to pull such a stunt. Aura strengthened the body to inhumane levels, it was bread and butter for any Hunter, from novices to veterans with decades of service. With a careful application of Aura you can even jump so far that would look that you are flying. And that was without taking Semblances into consideration.

Jaunes unique Semblance was lost during the time he trained with his relative. It changed, it became something different, something else. Jaune wanted to be strong, in his heart, deep, hidden between layers and layers of self depreciation and self loathing, was the heart of the knight. His relative dig; one beating at a time; that diamond and polished it into something that left the two of them completely dumbfounded.

It was cool as hell thought. He was desiring to show Cinder how much damaged he can do with his Semblance now. Jaune would possible die in the conflict, the power of the Maidens was still Leagues above his newborn trick, but he was ready to made her broke a sweat. If not, he was going to pull all brakes off and go at full throttle against the accursed bitch. She has caused enough damage and cause so many deaths, that she would be granted Death penalty, in any court of law of the Four Kingdoms.

Crossing another floor, as he climbed with easiness into the upper levels. It was boring, but it was the faster route to the top of the tower, where Cinder and her suckers may possible be gloating about the shit they have done; If only they knew, what they have truly done. Jaune really wanted to understand why, a person like Cinder, capable of pulling this shit out of her sleeve under the nose of Ozpin, would be doing something like this. She must be a clever girl, If that’s the case, why on Remnant was she being such an asshole?. How can she not see the horrors that she was unleashing?. Or, she didn’t really give two fucks about it and stole the Maidens powers because she was addicted to the power and was a control freak.

Somehow, Jaune suspected it was going to be the latter more than any other explanation. You can't reason with crazy, they will drag you down to their craziness and beat you there, where they had way more experience than you. Although, Jaune was expecting some more reasonable or at last more developed argumentsbeyond the “I am the Queen of the Castle” routine. That would be stealing Noras thunder and Jaune really liked the hyperactive Valkyrie, she was a nice girl, crazy as cuckoo, but with her heart in the right place. Not many can say something like that.

Remnant was not a happy place, there were lots and lots of assholes everywhere, whose emotions only called more and more of the Grimm to them, putting the rest of the population in danger. That’s what Hunters are for, to face the Grimm and send them whimpering back to their master, speaking of which, the master of the Grimm must be gloating as hell right now too. Vale has always been a thorn on her side, Ozpin specially, so she must be doing a victory dance by now. Jaune really wanted to rain on her parade.

Another floor, seven more to go. Jaune cursed in his mind, even if he was climbing quite fast, it was taking a lot of time that he did not have. At this point Pyrrha must be already with the rest of JNPR and RWBY and the professors must already being informed of the failure of the power transfusion and how Ozpin has possible fallen. That means that, unless something drastic happens, Ironwood was going to toss all the papers over his shoulder and call in for a bloody artillery bombardment that would left Beacon as a smoking crater in the floor. With Jaune inside of it.

It was a good thing that he had his scroll in incognito mode; meaning, he could send but not receive any call. If any of his friends managed to get a hold of him right now, Ruby, Pyrrha or Snow angel and just beg him to stop, he would cry like a children and run back to their side. Jaune was not a bloody hero, he would like to be, but he was not. He was a cowardly lion of golden mane and blue eyes. Instead, he was way more dangerous than that. He learned, the hard, bloody, beating, suffering way; that he was not any kind of chosen one or hero, he was, simply, a knight.

Its almost disturbing how truth can made one free. He was a knight, not a hero, not a leader, just a knight. Knights endure, fights and protects, it is in their job description, and that was exactly what Jaune pretended to do. Not to mention that going at full throttle is going to be fucking awesome. Even since he got back from his training, he has been holding himself down, he was dangerous to his fellow Hunters in training. If he got careless and used too much Aura or his new found strength and abilities, he could cripple or worse, kill, any of his sparring partners.

Do not get him wrong, he was sure that if he fought Yang, the blonde Dragon could still, smash him against the wall repeatedly, or Snow angel could freeze him until he screamed uncle. However, they lacked the unlimited stamina and sturdiness that Jaune had now. Pyrrha already discovered it, Jaune was a freaking Aura monster, his reserves were bloody humongous, now, those same reserves allow him to be like a living, walking tank. And of course, it was the matter of his Semblance, oh, how was Jaune going to enjoy the faces of the three stooges of the roof once he unleashed it on their faces.

He would never use it against his friends, it would be reckless, stupid and potentially lethal. Not to mention that would lead to some relentless teasing from Yang and some awkward questions about it that would lead to a very heartfelt confession that he was not precisely ready to face. Even with all his powers, Aura, Hunter training and all that jazz, Jaune was still a teenager, and that means that he had all his hormones inebullition, back and forth, with his emotions and feelings.

The tower shackled and Jaune lost hold of wall, cursing in loud voice. The Dragon has started to tear apart the place, inch by inch. His enhanced senses were telling him that the bloody lizard was chewing the intricate clockworks that composed the insides of the tower. Ozpin had a theme running on the tower with all that clockwork devices and mechanism, and pretty sure they were there for something more than decoration. Unfortunately, right now, they were nothing but the chew toys of a Grimm Dragon that seems to be bored and had nothing better to do, that chew the bloody tower around.

Jaune fell into an open space and quickly roll and get up. He was into what looked like an office; possible one of the multiple offices that the personnel used to deal with the bureaucratic nightmare that must be a Hunters Academy. From the space of the offices, several Grimm heads started to rise. Jaune just huffed and taking _Crocea Mors_ again, he charged against the first Grimm in his path.

The poor Ursa, even with all his body mass, was slammed against the opposite wall of the office, and with another push, Jaune used the broken body of the Ursa to punch through the wall, sending both of them tumbling; or better said, rolling in a very inelegant manner, as the corpse of the Ursa disappeared in black smoke; into another office. Equally, filled to the brim with more Grimm.

And the lazy tip of the tail of the Dragon, through one of the outer walls. The beast has taken position, clawing his way into the walls of the building and right now he was coiled around the building. Jaune grow a wicked smile and clenching _Crocea Mors_ harder in his hand, scanned the room for the total number of menaces.

Not really wanting to give the Grimm the initiative, Jaune moved and slashed at the nearest Grimm. Cutting the beast in half with a backward cut, he twirled the sword into an icepick grip; Jaune pierced the chest of an Ursa that tried to claw him. Taking the sword out of the chest of the dead Grimm, Jaune used all the momentum to cut another Grimm from the shoulder the hip.

Raising the sword, he pointed the tip to a charging Boartusk and let itself impale against the unbreakablesword. The boar reached the handle before it vanished into a black mist, that Jaune crossed, twirling the sword back into a normal grip and cutting another Beowolf in two with a single strike, from head to crotch. Jaune rose an eyebrow at how easy it was now to cut this low level cannon fodder. Back in the day, he had all kind of problems to even cut the skin of a baby Bewolf.

Turning around, Jaune ducked and performed a reverse roundhouse kick, followed by a middle roundhouse and high reverse roundhouse kick that broke the knee of an Ursa, made it kneel so Jaune could kick its face and finally put enough strength in the weakened mask to cave its head inside its shoulders. Recovering the position, Jaune did not have time to wonder about the kind of strength that he had now, if he has managed to crunch the head of an Ursa inside its own shoulders. It was needed a lot of strength, of that, he had no doubt.

As the Grimm started to react, the tail of the Dragon continue spawning more and more monsters, it was not even moving and somehow, the bloody beast knew that they need reinforcements. Jaune just huffed in annoyance and prepared his sword for the fight. Charging into the fray, he cut and stab anything in his path, never stopping, never standing in the sameposition for more than a second, for the Grimm to took advantage and counterattack or swarm him like they used constantly on all kind of Hunters. He pierced the chest of a Beowolf and used his body as battery ram, until it dissolved into black mist. Once he got his sword free, he swung it like a baseball bat, cutting anything in its way and using the momentum to throw himself at one big Ursa, an Alpha, that appeared near the tail of the Dragon. Using the inertia gained, he twirled in mid air and punched the under jaw of the Ursa with all the might he could muster from such position.

Truth to be told, Jaune freaked out as much as the rest of the Grimm, when the head of the Ursa disappeared in a shower of black gore, along good part of his chest and shoulders. Jaune did not know he was capable of putting so much juice behind his punches, never has he such absurd amount of strength, it was more Yangs or Nora territory to be juggernauts. But it was more than welcome, considering the kind of shit he was neck deep into. It was a good thing that he still acted like a half assed Hunter when he sparred with his fellow Hunters in training, otherwise he could have killed one of them.

He was not a murderer, a killer maybe, but not a murdered. Big difference between those two. He really wanted to beat the crap out of Cardin for being an asshole, but the lad has changed a lot after that clusterfuck in Forever Fall, and Jaune was all about second chances. If he had one, everybody else could have one. Except the three stooges in the roof, those three fuckers were beyond any chance of piety from him. They could have killed Pyrrha, they had made Yang look like a bloody criminal, they had killed Rubys robot friend, they are responsible for thousands of deaths down there. They are going to die, simply as that. But Jaune knew that it would a battle for the ages, and even after what he has achieved, he still had a lot of doubts.

But doubts were something for the living, dead men walking like him, never had to worry about that useless things. Jaune knew that he has put himself into practically a suicide mission. Being brutally honest, better him that any of the others. They were people with a bright future ahead, him?, uh, after what his relative has done and has told him?, not so much. Oh, sure he could have ducked out and let Pyrrha die against Cinder, ignoring everyone and its grandmother and made a run for the Arcs home. Yeah, Jaune knew that’s not going to happen. He was a foolish knight, and right now, he had a bloody Dragon to slain and a nasty witch to kill.

Taking a deep breath, Jaune grabbed a Creep by the head and crushed his skull with his bare hands, snarling back at the Grimm that surrounded him. This was getting ridiculous, this cannon fodder were making him lost precious time. Smashing and slashing at anything that come closer to him he started to open a parth. It felt good, it felt so good, not to be the butt of the joke, to be strong, to be what he always wanted. Pity the price was always so high, otherwise this would have been great, but the prize has been paid and now Jaune would have to live with the consequences.

Not that he was going to live much longer; he was very close to his final destiny and possible the battle of his life against a monster that has stolen the power of a legend. Wow, now that Jaune think about it; this was exactly like an arc of X-ray and Van. Such a childish thought made him laugh in the middle of the carnage, as he kept chopping the Grimm like they were fresh meat to the slaughterhouse; he laughed hard. It was liberating.

 _Crocea Mors_ was singing like it has never sung for the last decades. For the weapon, a sword made with a single purpose; Kill; feasting in the flesh and blood of the Grimm, was the peak of its existence. The sword echoed with its holder, when Jaune cut, the sword cut, when Jaune parry, the sword parry. It may sound redundant but it means that the action was completed. The sword did not stop, no matter how sturdy the flesh and bone of the Grimm where, the claws and fangs of the Grimm rebound against the edge of the sword, they did not break his guard. There was not mid step, not failure, not incomplete action. Once Jaune strike, the sword killed a Grimm, bone armor be dammed. Together, the steel and the Hunter, cleaved a bloody and gruesome path among the hordes of Grimm that kept surging from the tail of the Dragon.

Stomping over the head of a wounded Ursa, smashing its head against the broken floor of the office. Jaune used the corpse of the Grimm to impulse himself and setting the sword downwards, he stabbed with all his might, the black and thick, scaled appendage that rested lazily against the tower of Beacon. _Crocea Mors_ pierced the impossible hard scales and flesh like it was butter, burying itself till the hilt. Jaune smiled madly, until the Dragon roared in pain and surprise and set flight, carrying with himself a very stressed Jaune Arc, that hated flying with a passion.

“Motherfucker!!!!!” screeched Jaune, grabbing the hilt of _Crocea Mors_ for his dear life as he was dragged into the top floors by the wounded Dragon.

It has to be said that when Mercury was recording the fall of Vale and Beacon, the last thing he expected was for the Dragon to roar like something has stabbed him in the balls and set flight. Abandon his post, much to the anger of Cinder, who believed had the beast completely under her control, and leaving the trio of persons on the top of the tower wondering what has happened, until, they eared the cursing voice that was latched to the Dragon.

Like it was bleeding from the tail, a veritable rain of Grimm keep falling from its tail to the floor, several meters below, and among those Grimm, a human figure was hugging for his dear life to the tail of the Dragon, screeching and cursing like a sailor. At some point, the figure seems to slip, leaving a nasty gash on the tail of the Dragon that roared in pain again and suddenly turned down into a low flight, sending a lot of Grimms into the open space in the top floor of the tower.

But the thing that surprised the three of them more than anything else, was the cursing boy that landed, very harshly, over one of the Grimms that the Dragon has drop like blood tears in the open space of the roof, crushing the Grimm with his shield, smashing it against the floor, until he was enveloped in the black mist of a Grimm dying.

Coughing and wheezing, Jaune Arc exited the black mist, sheathing his sword back into its scabbard; he waved the black smoke like the nasty thing it was and kept cursing under his breath, as he tried to recover from the ordeal. He was afraid of heights, not even his traumatizing training cured him completely of that bloody malady. Air sickness seems to be his bloody kriptonite.

Noticing that he was not alone, and that he has finally reached the top of the Tower, Jaune cursed loudly and cracked his neck to the sides, stretching his body for the battle that was coming his way. Cinder was smiling amused. Not really a surprise, for her, Jaune was as dangerous as a mouse with boxing gloves and equally worrying. Jaune bet on that, if he wanted to catch her with her panties down.

“Uh, you know, I wanted to reach the top floor” spitted Jaune to the side, with the after taste of the Grimm mist still lingering in his mouth. “Never did I expect I was going to reach it by grabbing a Dragon tail and be dragged around like a dog toy”.

“Well” purred Cinder, this was unexpected for her, but alas it stroked her ego, to know that she has cornered Vale so far, that they had sent the most useless Hunter she has ever know to face her, even if he was an Arc. “I must confess, that I was expecting someone of bigger caliber than you, little Arc”.

“Honestly?, me too” cut short Jaune, not really appearing all worried or impressed by Cinder, and that made her rose and eyebrow.

Mercury cut the recording, Cinder may use names and for the most part, they were still unknown for all the intelligence agencies of the world, all that happened now, will be wrapped under shadows. Emerald for her part, just stared at the Arc boy with a mix of amusement and pity.

“So, you are the Queen, uh?” eyed Jaune, Cinder, with indifference. “Not bad, seen better though” now that made the trio on the roof stiff a little, did the Arc boy insulted Cinder at her face?.

“Now, that it is clear that I am going to die horribly” Jaune, dusted his vest and adjusted his tie, like it was the most normal thing in the world, really throwing the trio of evildoers a bit off balance “do you mind, If I ask you a couple of things that has been bugging me since the tournament?”.

“Even if he is a joke of a Hunter, he had balls of steel” chuckled Mercury that was seeing how the sweet smile of Cinder was slowly forming. When she had that smile, someone was going to die, horribly and screaming until nothing was left but ashes.

“He is a buffoon and an idiot” dismissed Emerald the walking corpse.

“I am to please” smirked Jaune to the other two “but excuse me if I do not pay attention to the background noise, adults are speaking here so, please, hush” dissed out Jaune the two companions/minions of Cinder.

“Did he just dissed us out?” asked Mercury astonished and Emerald narrowed her eyes.

“Has the presence of the Dragon turn you mad, little Arc?” smiled Cinder.

“Not really” shrugged Jaune without a care in the world. “It is amazing how, knowing that you are going to die, it made wonders with your boldness; for example, I am in front of the Fall Maiden and I am more worried about how on Remmant did you managed to take control of the Atlesian robot army”.

“That poor tin man” mocked Cinder. “A simple virus in the CCTS, a virus that uploaded itself into his scroll the next time he need to check up the status of his toys and voila, my personal and amusing, tin man to play”.

“Seriously?” Jaune was astonished. “Are you telling me that Ironwood, General in the Atlesian army, the most bloody technologically advanced Kingdom, did not have countermeasures against hacking in his own bloody scroll?” practically Jaune screeched. “This is nuts, but I can see it, you got that assholes scroll, you could order around the Atlesian army...included a very, very humane robot called Penny”.

Cinder clapped in mocking manner.

“Bravo” she chuckled. “But, in truth that would be the actions of my own little illusionist, Emerald dear, was it hard to fool everybody?”.

“Not really” she smiled widely “all Valesians are fools that would believe anything they saw on T.V”.

“Illusions” Jaune observed Emerald and facepalmed himself. “Fucking obvious, after being sucker punched by that bloody midget of Neo, I should have known better. What do you see, that is not real?, a bloody illusion”.

Jaune then turned to Mercury and eyed him in way that made the assassin very uncomfortable. For a supposed doofus, there was something steely on those eyes that made him very, very nervous. Emerald and Cinder noted too, but chalked to the adrenaline of the battle, this useless knight did not have precisely the most stellar record in combat class, neither a brilliant performance in field missions, being more a drag that an asset to his team.

“You” Jaune eyed “they took you on a stretcher, even if you did attack her and no one saw it, your leg was busted” Jaune suddenly shut up and snarled “cybernetic legs, Goddammit”.

The trio was a bit shocked, how has the discovered that little piece of info, nothing of the conversation pointed out to that deduction.

“In all, I got to admit” Jaune bowed to the Fall Maiden in respect, something that amused and flattered Cinder, the Arc was not so foolish “for a little piranha trying to swim with the sharks, you have done an astonishing work”.

Cinder was beyond flabbergasted, did this child insulted her?. With a frown, she created a fire lance and tossed at the Arc, that raised his shield in a second, hiding behind the sturdy material and dodging the scorching projectile.

“Whoa, easy there, Fall Maiden” chuckled Jaune, slowly showing his face over the edge of his shield “I was complimenting you, no need to get violent”.

“What I wanted to say was that I am amazed that you still believed no one is going to hunt you like the rabid bitch you are and put you down” explained Arc with surprising bluntness. “Come on, you are a brilliant mastermind, you must have thought about the consequences, of screwing with three Kingdoms at the same time and general Irondick”.

The dare of the Arc, and that mix of bluntness and logic, flattery and insult was off putting to say the last, and for the first time in ages, Cinder was feeling confronted thoughts, she wanted to torch the Arc to ashes, but at the same time, he has surprised her with his acumen, discovering things that he should have not known or discover.

“And pray I tell, foolish knight, who are they going to hunt?” asked Cinder.

Jaune stared at her for a second, then turn to Mercury and Emerald and to the Dragon and snorted loudly.

“Ah, yeah, you don’t exist” smiled Jaune shocking his head. “Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai and Mercury Black are not the names of the students of “Haven.”” Put extra tone into the name of the Academy that the three in front of him, used as cover to get into the Vytal Festival. “Okay, you got me there, no one is going to look for you, when they will be very busy with that overgrown lizard” pointed Jaune to the flying Dragon over them. “And pointing all of this disaster to those poor cretins of the White Fang, speaking of which, I know for good, that Adam is a tremendous asshole with no love for humans, so...how did you convince that rabid fanatic?”.

“Poor Adam is a good warrior, but a lame leader” laughed Cinder with little respect for the Taurus Faunus “I convinced him that this was going to be a strike to the heart of the humans he hated so much, and I did not lie”.

“No, you are not” conceded the point Jaune. “Pity, the Grimm will kill everybody, Faunus and Humans alike, but you did promise that you will help him to dealt a nasty strike to the heart of Vale, killing hundreds of Faunus at the same time, uh, so much for the Faunus freedom fighters, eh?, bunch of wankers” sighed Jaune and Mercury had to admit that he liked the Arc, he seems to be quite different from what the reports about him said.

“So, let me recap a little, please” raised his hand Jaune to Cinder.

Who observed him amused and a bit tired of all this charade, at the beginning it was funny but this was getting ridiculous. She discretely signaled Emerald and the thief vanish in her semblance, ready to strike the Arc from an illusion as he would never suspect a thing.

“You have fucked up the CCTS, to hack into a scroll that would turn the robots against everybody. You had incited the bloodlust of the White Fang up to a point where innocent Faunus are going to die in the crossfire between bigots and assholes. You have blamed an innocent Huntress to make the public opinion turn against their protectors, awakening an incredible monster in the process. You have put an entire Kingdom upside down, altering the Four Kingdoms balance...All for the power of the Fall Maiden, a poor, defenseless woman that you have killed like you were a bloody junkie that would have done anything to get her fix ”. Resumed Jaune with deadpanning expression.

“I don’t know if you are a bloody genius or the most stupid bitch I have ever encounter”.

That made it, Cinder snarled. No stupid boy would ever insult her like that and went his merry way.

“Salem must be sorely disappointed in you”.

Cinders brain screeched to an alt, Mercurys brain screeched to an alt, Emeralds brain screeched to an alt. In the skies, the Dragon roared at the mention of its true master. For several seconds, no one dared to utter a single word. Meanwhile, Jaune cleaned up the sooth on the surface of his shield, it was still uncomfortably hot.

“How?” finally hissed Cinder, flames already enveloping her. This Arc has uttered a name that he should not know about.

“How what?” asked Jaune back.

A rain of flame lances befall upon Jaune who jumped to the side and covered himself behind the shield that come with _Crocea Mors_. The metal soon heated up to a point that his Aura was overworking to kept the burns at bay.

“How do you know of that name?” demanded Cinder, it really grinds her gears that in her hour of triumph there was still this big loose end. How come has she not seen the Arc for the menace he was?, he was a bumbling fool!, this was not how it should be.

“Salem?” shrugged Jaune, extending his shield and sword and keeping them in a relaxing position. “My relative, I think the rest of the world know him as Zuria Arc, told me about her”.

Mercury stiffened even more. The assassin knew everyone in the profession and the name that Arc has just toss around like it was nothing; carried a ton of weight in the underworld. Everyone was terrified of the White crusher.He had crushed, literally, more shady organizations that anybody else in Remnant and he has done it just by the laughs or because he considered them, unworthy. Supposedly, he retired two decades ago.

“He meet her once, fought her and made her run to the Badlands” explained Jaune. “She is fast on her feet, he would give her that; way faster than my uncle Zuria”.

Cinder remembered something among those lines when her true master spoke about her mission. After her defeat,Salem took refugee in the Badlands, no one in his sane mind go there, is practically a death sentence.

“So, another Arc messed with our plans” snarled Cinder creating a massive fireball in her hands, the heat was overwhelming. “Your kin is a bloody plague”.

“We have been told” said Jaune, with a smirk. “But you should be careful with that” said Jaune before extending his hand, the one with the shield expanded in his arm, and grabbed Emerald from the neck, crushing her throat and starting to choke her. “You could hit this little illusionist”.

The Emerald that was standing at the side of Mercury vanished like she was made of smoke, as the real one appeared under the crushing grip, Jaune had on her swam neck. Jaune did not like to hurt his enemies more than he needed to win, but in this case, he was going to make an exception. Emerald was panicking, never has anyone escaped her illusions, it affected the brain, all the senses at once. Unless you knew you were in an illusion, you can't discern truth for lies. And this Arc has pierced through her illusion like it was nothing, how on Remnant has he managed to do that?.

“Now, tell me Fail Maiden” laughed Jaune, keeping the body of Emerald, who was starting to choke for the strangling grip the Arc had in her neck and she couldn’t break, no matter much strength did she put in the effort. “What's going to be?, this is a hostage situation, will you wait or will you bargain for the life of this cute, chocolate skinned thief?; come on, we are alone in this tower”.

There was steel in Jaunes voice, a steel that Cinder has never felt before. He was different from all the buffoons that she has meet so far. The student of Beacon were nothing but teenagers, she had half of them eating from her hand, at a week of being there. Ozpin was an old fool, who believed he was always in control, Qrow, as terrifying the Hunter was, was a drunkard. Roman was a diva, Adam was a mad bull with anger issues; everyone had a weakness and was easily manipulated.

But this Arc has appeared from nowhere was different. All theinformation they have about him was totally wrong. He was not a failure, he was not a bumbling fool that know nothing of Aura and who was unable to won a single match during combat class. He was the meat shield of his team, a childish knight with a shield whose only redeeming quality was his big Aura reserves, that he used to shield everybody from harm. Noble, but idiotic.

But that was nothing like Cinder was seeing now. He was brutal, clever, and had a ruthless side that Cinder found quite of her liking. Pity, if he was like this since the beginning, Cinder would have tried to recruit him, it was much better than the silver haired assassin that she had to put up with.

Speaking of whom, he has already moved and covering the distance that separated them in a quick stride, launched himself in the air with a devastating flying kick to the head of the Arc. The Arc saw him coming and letting Emerald go, he surprised Mercury; by grabbing his foot with the same hand he has been holding Emerald; the shield hand. They skidded a lot of meters for the force behind the kick. Mercury cybernetic legs were top-notchprosthetic that hold a lot of tricks and pure mechanical strength.

B efore Mercury could recover the position and kick the Arc with an extra power from the thrusters in his legs; Jaune moved and pierced the calf of the assassin.  _Crocea Mors_ easily cut into the mechanical leg and skewered the piece of technology. Twirling the weapon inside the of cyber netic leg,  Jaune ripped the piece, off his socket, making Mercury scream ed in pain from the sudden and mind shattering nerve backlash of the destruction of the  nerve connections .

A s the Mercenary fall to the floor, gritting his teeth in pain and shock. Jaune stood there, eying the sparking piece of technology skewered in his sword.

“Uh; Ixions tech, should have now, only a bastard like him, would provide tech to a scum like you” kicked Jaune the fallen Mercury, with enough force to send him flying to the side of the recovering Emerald, who was rubbing her neck.

If it  wasn’t for her Aura,  her neck should have been squeezed like the neck of a  chicken.  It has been too close for her liking,  and she  wasn’t entirely sure that Cinder would have not torched her along the Arc with her fireball.  The Arc was now  running for his life, Cinder has t aken advantage of how has Mercury moved the Arc  off Emerald and toss ed a fireball at him, when he was kicking Mercury.

Jaune barely dodged the  fireball. Rolling out of the way, as his shield was now in the floor along the recovering Mercury and Emerald. He really should have kept it, but he needed to kept the assassin quiet for enough time to rip his bloody fake leg off.  Let's see how much did he kicked and dicked around without a leg and with all the nervous system screaming bloody hell in his head.

If Jaune was right, cyber netic implants, may be cool and all that jazz but  they are a complete pain in the ass to deal with. Maintenance, phantom pains,  expensive replacements. There was an entire underworld dedicated to the cyber netics ; his uncle Zuria show him a  Chop-Shop as they called the cyber netic clinics and Jaune just never, ever, see a  prohostetic the same way since then. Hopefully, he would die torched to ashes, and he could just scatter in the wind, back to home.

He really should have visited home one last time. He really missed his family, even if he was embarrassed for running away from home and stealing _Crocea Mors_ , not that he did not like the amazing sword and shield combo. But he really would have liked to have more options in battle. Like a hidden dagger, some extra mid and long range options, things like that. Mecha-shift weapons were amazing, just look at Rubys _Crescent Rose_ , now, that was a badass piece of weapon.

A veritable rain of fire arrows come his way and Jaune cursed under his breath. Running like a madman, he used his trusted sword to deflect and parry some fire projectiles, but even with his amazing swords skills, it was too much. In three months that has felt like thirty years for Jaune, he has improvised laps and bounds. He slept grabbing the hilt of _Crocea Mors_ , suspecting a sneak attack from his uncle Zuria. _Crocea Mors_ and him were way more connected now, Jaune understood that the sword was more than a n eternally sharp piece of metal. It carried the lineage of the Arc and the duty of being the bane of all Grimm.

T he fire licked his face, charring a piece of his che e k; Aura be dammed; a long his right arm, left leg and back. It could have been worse, those were superficial burns, nothing Aura could not heal or his body regenerate quickly.  Since his uncle Zuria awoken his Arc blood, Jaune was way over the common Hunter;  it was a secret that he kept for himself. If everybody drink from the same wheel, it would inevitable dry faster.  His flesh started to mend slowly, increasing the pace as his Aura joined the healing effort, from the outside view, it was like his wounds were closing and healing at an amazing rate, even for the Hunters.

T aking cover behind a solid piece of rubble, that was soon  besieged by dozens of red hot arrows; Jaune sighed and took a deep breath. His ace under his sleeve was still not ready, it was not something that o ne could call, as easily as he dialed for a pizza. It was needed a specific mindset, it was needed a specific kind of memories and desire s to awoke. Semblances are  like that sometimes. There was people that could call them at will, like Ruby who could run at terrific speeds  at will, and others that need a specific emotion, like Yang, who need to get angry for using her Semblance.

Jaune was way worse in that sense. His Semblance awoke when he hit rock bottom, when he was at his lowest and can only see darkness. When he named it, his uncle Zuria smiled and said it was fitting as hell, surprisingly, it was the candle in the darkness, the slivers and bounds that made Jaune grow during Beacon Academy were the thing that made his Semblance, one of the few things in Beacon that could made Cinder broke a sweat.

Feinting to the left, Jaune made a run to his shield,  as the fire arrows  ripped apart the place where he has been hiding not a second ago.  Not even the solid stones and metals of the tower could endure for long the  punishment Cinder was dishing. She really was as dangerous as everybody suspected. Despite all her appearances; Cinder was nothing but an addict.

She took a taste of the powers of the Maidens  and she desired more. The hunger for it, made her plan all this madness; helped by that monster of Salem of course; she needed another dose of the power of the Maidens.  B ut as it happens with all addicts,  the high  will finish and  then she would notice that the power of the Fall Maiden was not enough,  she will hunt another Maiden.  S he will always hunt for more, until she finally broke apart with an overdose of a power that was neither for her, neither something she  understands shit about.

S uch a  catastrophe;  the Battle of Vale; for the needs of a greedy asshole that wanted vengeance  against everything  and was hooked to the power of the Maidens.

I f it  wasn’t so tragic, Jaune would have been laughing his ass off. Even when he was nothing but a deluded fool, Jaune would have found all this mess a complete madness and would never understood the  necessity for it.  Not that he understood what exactly the Maidens are or how did they fit with the revelations that his uncle Zuria dished to him during his training.  It was so complex that it went right over his head, what he understood, however, was how all this mess was completely  unnecessary.

Salem wanted to corrupt the Maidens, in a sense. If Cinder was the new Fall Maiden, and she was loyal to Salem, that means that she could start to act more openly and sending stronger and nastier Grimm  to the Kingdoms.  With the lost of the Silver eyes, the Arcs dispersed and unawakened,  the Maidens under her control and another other dozen of shits wrapped or killed. Salem would conquer the world, easy as pie. It would start the  A ge of the Grimm,  something that sent shivers down Jaunes spine.

R unning for his shield, he grabbed the handle of the solid piece of metal and roll out of the incoming fireball. Mercury and Emerald were not that lucky.  The fire exploded like a grenade, just in the place where Jaune has been not a second ago,  Emerald was just fast enough to jump out of the explosion, Mercury was not that fortunate. The assassin was toss ed like broken doll against a pile of rubble, bleeding, charred and broken with his remaining limbs, bent in impossible angles.

“You should treat better your toys, Fail Maiden” mocked Jaune, strapping firmly the shield to his arm and adoption a guard pose, he was going to make her sweat for the victory.

“Silence, mongrel, this charade has lasted long enough” growled Cinder, calling forth more and more fire arrows. Sending him against Jaune in a shower of fire constructs. She was not even using Dust, anybody else would have needed a good chunk of fire Dust and a shit ton of Aura to do something similar.

Jaune stood his ground, took cover under his shield, and endured the rain of fire.

With a  nerve wrecking hammering sound, the arrows fell against the surface of the shield.  But Jaune gritted his teeth and endure, in the few places where the shield could not cover, the arrows did hurt him, but it was nothing. Pain was welcome, pain was something that he knew very, very well. An old friend that has  accompanied him since the first day. Not physical pain, although there was a lot of those too, no, it was a different, worse kind of pain.

P ain of the heart, emotional pain; now that was something totally different. Persons can heal from a wound, the pain passes, the wound heals, and  that’s all. You may even get a cool scar to  showoff about,  but when the pain is in the heart. Now, that t akes a lot, lot more time to heal, and even then, it will still be there, always ready to remind you what you lost or what you suffer.

That was the kind of pain , the one that Jaune knew so  intimately.  Since day one on Beacon, a fool deluding himself, thinking that he could stand along people that has been training all their lives, that were trained to be Hunters. Him, a cretin with fake transcripts and a dream of being worthy of the Arc name. An idiot that could have kill ed any of his team  with his half baked strategies and  pitiful combat performance. He, that has been dragging down people like Pyrrha, Ren, Nora, Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Coco, Velvet, Yatsuhashi. People that deserved the title of Hunters much more than a failure like him, who was all hot air and would have  wounded himself with his own sword,  if it  w as n’t for Pyrrhas training.

Jaunes heart drummed in his chest, his head was ringing in echo with the constant punishment that he was suffering, his wounds, charred and healing, where sending pain signals to his brain. He was losing, he was losing again, he was nothing but an idiot that deluded himself thinking he was something special.

Perfect.

As usual, his Sembla n ce awaken inside of him,  answering to the negative emotions that swarmed his heart.

Like  a warning of what was about to come, a loud, ear shattering roar, filled the night. The Dragon was a Grimm, and as any Grimm, he was sensitive to the emanations that Jaune Arc was experimenting right now.  B ut as a Primal Grimm, the Dragon was  intelligent or at last, clever enough to know that there was something odd  with the flesh bag down there.

The Dragon surrounded the tower and with a last beat of his wings, it landed in the open space of the top floor. Cinder saw the beast coming, and seeing that the Arc was beaten and smoking from all the impacts that he foolishly endured;  she turned her attention to the beast. Her master, even if Cinder despised to think like that, has offered her quite the pet. One of the Primal Beasts that roamed  the land in the ancient times and was born from the malice and negativity of the hunted humanity and Faunus.

T he Dragon lowered  its head, standing at the same level as Cinder, who eyed him and clicked her tongue, speaking in a forgotten tongue that made the Dragon ca l m a little. However, the influx, almost intoxicating miasma that the flesh bag was generating made him rose his head, ignoring Cinder and eyed the flesh bag with renew interest.

Cinder was  slightly surprised and tremendously annoyed that the accursed Dragon was ignoring her. This was not how things were supposed to happen. The Dragon should be her submissive pet, however, the ancient beast was looking at the fallen Arc boy with something akin to interest and curiosity. What was so interesting in the little fool?.

“You know” said the voice of Jaune. “I should have known that I am sorely unprepared for facing both of you”.

“A little late for stopping being a fool” chuckled Cinder, sending a fire wave to Jaune, that blocked it, but was sent against a rock behind him, crashing in pain against the hard surface and cracked it.

“Yeah, bad timing” nodded Jaune, spiting some blood. “That can't be good, well, no pain, no gain, as uncle Zuria uses to say”.

“Your determination is admirable” said Cinder, still worried about the sudden interest of the Dragon in the boy “stupid, childish, and is going to be the death of you, but I can admire your stubborn mindset”.

“Thanks” said the Arc, groaning in pain for the ribs that were reconnecting themselves and a dozen other bones that were not in a better state. He stopped suddenly, turn his face to the side and grabbing a stone from the floor turned his face to Cinder.

“Give me a second, please, I need to take care of something” said Jaune, before testing the weight of the stone and thrown it in what looked like a random direction. It hit something and suddenly, Emerald appeared in mid air and dropped to the floor like a puppet that had its strings cut.

“Goddammit, minted chocolate cutie, be a dear and sleep for a little, would ya?, I need you alive and arrested” groaned Jaune. His wounds were a little too much, and he has been accumulating them one after another, he need time to heal and that was a luxury he did not have.

“It is the second time you managed to pierce Emerald illusions” raised an eyebrow Cinder, notably impressed “before I end you, you are going to tell me how”. It was a clear order, Cinder was in no mood for games. Pity, Jaune was all about annoying the hell out of this bitchy junkie.

“Blame your adored Grimm for it” said Jaune. He slowly took out of his sleeveless vest, a little bag of leather. “You know the big guy and the fashionista lady that she messed up with during the tournament?” asked Jaune, getting the bag back to the inner pocket of his vest. It was trended with Aura thread, way better than his old armor.

“Yatsuhashi is from a little island of the east” explained Jaune. “There, they have a unique series of Grimm, and among those oddities, there is one that had a unique skill that has come quite handy. Nekomatas are cat like Grimms of two tails, they had the unique skill of see through any illusion or transformation”.

“That’s impossible, no Grimm would help you” scoffed Cinder.

“True” nodded Jaune and he grinned wickedly. “But there is more than one way of skin a cat and for people like me, it is possible”.

J aune felt the pull of his Semblance, it was ready, it was starting to push out of its slumber, deep down the soul of Jaune. As his Semblance awoke, his Aura flared, a white Aura that, like a mist, spread all over his feet, arms and back. It appeared as he was sweating a dense white mist.

“One last effort, eh?” rolled her eyes Cinder, really wanting to end this spectacle, the Arc has already cost her enough time and resources, wounding Mercury and Emerald like this.

J aune  knelt and stabbed his sword on the hard surface, his shield forgotten at his side.

“Kneeling for mercy, once again, too little, too late” laughed Cinder.

“You don’t get it” sighed Jaune with his eyes closed and tiredness in his voice. “There is not an ending on where you triumph and there is a throne waiting for you” Jaune sighed. “You have fucked to many people and screw with too many dangerous people to walk away unscathed”.

“Boy, the blood loss is affecting your brain, has not been clear by now that no one knew who I am?” smiled triumphantly.

“Who is going to chase after ghost?” asked Cinder laughing, gloating in her triumph. “Atlas?, they don’t even know of the virus that I put in their systems and how I had access to Ironwoods scroll at will; The White Fang?, useful pawns, Adam bloodlust made them useful cannon fodder, they were so blinded by their own bigotry that they will take the blame for the Battle of Vale; The Hunters?, Beacon is in ruins, the people was so easily turned against their protectors, so easily did they betray those that protected them that it would take generations to start to mend bridges. And by that time the Grimm will be the Apex of the food chain and I will be hunting the next Maiden”.

W ithout open his eyes, Jaune sighed and pointed out at something behind him, somewhere at his left.

“Man, you really love to gloat, smile at the camera junkie bitch. Now shut up, I am praying” said Jaune clapping his hands together and calling forth the name that Zuria revealed to him and could resume the pure essence of the origins of the Arcs.

C inder smile froze in her face when she listened to the boy, praying?, how cute, but then the camera word entered into her brain like and ice pick and  made her look at the direction the boy was pointing.  O nly to see the glass of a scroll camera, trapped between some rubble.  Recalling the battle to see when has the Arc had time to plant that, seriously hoping it was a blunder, Cinder realized that, that place was where the Arc has landed initially, in the middle of the black mist that was the  disappearing corpse of a  Grimm.

The bloody Arc has hidden that camera within the mist and during all the time, he has been fishing for information, he has transmitted to everybody her name, her real appearance. Heck, she has even confessed a lot of the things that she has done to get the powers of the Maiden. She was busted and she knew it.

Rage filled her thoughts and snarling  like a beast, her beautiful face marred with a twisted snarl; she turned to the Arc, already preparing a bow and arrow of her stronger flames. She was going to torch the Arc to ashes, but before that, she was going to burn him alive, inch by inch, torching his flesh, bones and blood in agonizing manner.

Then a cold wave passed over her and her entire body freeze in the spot. It was impossible!, that power was impossible, it was not the Maidens, it was not like the cold, soulless presence of the Grimm. It was different, purer and shocking like a lightning in a clear night.  Pure power erupted from the kneeling boy,  and when he rose his head, Cinder realized that she was looking at something that was part of the legends.  An Aria chanted from the lips of the boy, whose eyes were  the most beautiful  azure eytes Cinder has ever seen .

“ _For I am of the blood of Galahad”._

“ _For I am o_ _f the Strength_ _of Arthur of the Many Blades”._

“ _As the darkness_ _tainted_ _me, I call forth what stalks the Nightmares”_.

“ _ **I am the Knightmare”.**_

B lack and white mixed in his Aura, from the wounds he sported in all his body, darkness crept and  c over his body in a shadow cocoon. A second later, Jaune Arc stood, shield and sword ready to battle. But what caught the eye of the Dragon and left Cinder flabbergasted  was the colossal figure that floated behind the boy.

It was female, a  Cuirass  carrying knight of brilliant brass colored armor, with a red sash on her hips.  In the middle of her chest, the twin golden half moons of the Arcs, proudly being displayed .

Her red mane flowed freely on the wind and at the top of her closed helmet;  only a deep spots of silver could be seen inside the darkness of the eyes; a set of cat like  ears  stand proudly .  F rom  the cat ears, what looked like living black bows, hanged,  twitch ing in anticipation for the battle.

The knight had six arms, the two upper arms wielded a pink  war hammer and a  big and nasty scythe,  the middle carried a couple of  sub-machine guns with daggers under the  barrels and the low arms carried a  brass shield and a white rapier.  There was nothing from waist down, just a mist of black and white Aura that emanated from the body under her. The female knight was of voluptuous figure, however, what surprised Cinder was that she could recognize the elements that conformed the ace under the sleeve of the Arc.

T he  armor,  hair color,  shield and red sash of Pyrrha Nikos, the  long mane of Yang Xiao Long, the bow  and cat ears of Blake  Belladonna ,  the war hammer of Nora Valkirie, the scythe and eyes of Ruby Rose,  the sub-machine guns of Lie Ren and  the rapier of Weiss Schnee.  All of them, sporting the accursed golden symbols of the Arcs.

“ **Now, Fail Maiden”**

The voice of the Arc was no longer a human voice, he was  speaking in a tone of voice that send shivers down the spine of Cinder, even if she wanted nothing but torture the bastard for his constant mockery.

“ **Have at thee”**

Dragon, Fall Maiden, young knight and Knightmare charged at each other at the top of the tower.

The impact shacked the already damaged tower more than it was,  sending shock waves in all directions and destroying the already wrecked halls of the broken tower. With each strike they send at their enemies, thunders echoed in the night sky, silencing even the sounds of cannons from the Atlas military.  There were gods  fighting in the sky and the mortals, Grimm, humans and Faunus, kept an amazed stare for some seconds, eying the explosions and ferocious lights and flames that lightened the night.

The Knightmare and the Dragon charged at each other, flying in a frenzied aerial battle. The twin weapons of the Knightmare was shooting non stop at the Dragon, whose scales and unnaturally sturdy flesh could barely contain the impacts. Its body shocked with each impact, as the Dragon summons more and more Nevermores that there dispersed by the war hammer and the scythe of her upper hands. Those weapons cut the flocks of recently created Nevermores like they were made of paper and her brass shield kept the hundreds of feather projectiles at bay.

T he Dragon slammed against the body of the Knightmare, biting hard of the shoulder of the Aura manifestation, but the Knightmare keep punishing the  Dragon with bullets, slash ing and  pummel ing with the pink war hammer  and dagger barrels of the machine guns .  Gashes and dents appeared all over the Knightmare frame,  in the zones that the Dragon bit, claw ed and slap ped with his tail, there was no quarter between the  two contender s .

Pretty much like Cinder and Jaune were trying their best to kill each other, several meters below them.

As soon as Cinder charged, she created a couple of flame scimitars and started to attack Jaune in a flurry of strikes that would have chopped an Atlesian Paladin to pieces  in less than a blink. But Jaune Arc stood his ground, his shield repelling the savage rain of slashes and cautiously waiting for his chance, sent his own stab or strike into the flaming figure of Cinder.

Cinder moved like a living fire, always on the offensive but never misstep or leaving an opening that Jaune could use. Instead, Jaune was like a mountain, solid in his defense; his shield flowed in combat, blocking the avalanche of fire blades and always keeping Cinder on her toes, forcing her to be very cautious about her attacks. Like snakes, the scimitars changed their attack pattern, looking out for holes in the defense of the shield and the places where Jaune would have difficulties to react to an attack. But Jaunes footwork was superb and always kept his shield in the adequate position.

Cinder changed the pattern  of her attacks, seeing that she could not pierce the defense of the bloody knight. After seeing him in Combat class, she knew that Jaune was not a professional, that he had a lot of work to do with his sword and his shield. But this knight in front of her was making her broke a sweat and was nothing like she saw in the  Beacon .

He was hiding his strength. Cinder has already deducted that  Jaune was not your everyday Hunter.  J ust that monster he has summoned from his own soul, that female knight that was capable of stand her grounds against a bloody Dragon, was proof enough of the unique quality of the Arc.  Salem did tell her about the blood of the Arcs, how they are unique, how they grow, slow but steady, into stalwart bulwarks of Remnant. But this was something she did not expect.

During all the year, she has only s een a buf f o o n with fake transcripts and now, she was seeing one of the most dangerous pieces of the game she has been playing with Ozpin.  If she knew about this wonderful knight, she would have recruited him in a heartbeat. There was something dark in the body; until know, she has only seen his jokester side, once the Knightmare was out, all his demeanor changed into a mountain of relentless power that she can not climb.

C inder had a very offensive style of fighting and seeing that  she could not kill this boy in close combat, she jumped back and call forth her favorite weapon. Cinder was better at long range,  specially with her bow and fire arrows.  E mpowered by the Maiden powers, her arrows would be able to pierce Aura like it was made of paper. Taking aim, she let three arrows fly into the chest, right arm and left leg  of Jaune.

Seeing the power that those arrow s contained,  Jaune  opted for dodge them, he had to be extra conservative  about his Aura, even if he had Aura to spare, Knightmare was draining him at an amazing rate, and once he drops out of Aura, it will start to feed in his body until the combat ends of Jaune dies. That was why, was so convinced that he was going to die. Knightmare was amazing and all, but killing a Primal Grimm and a Fall Maiden?, yeah, not very believable. That  doesn’t mean  that he was not going to make his best effort to made this bitch pay for trying to kill all his friends.

Jaune let the arrows pass at his side, ducking and dodging.  B ut before he could  charge back into close combat, a hot, piercing sensation appeared in his back, sending him tumbling forward. His Aura has barely protected him from the impact of one of those arrows. Those things had turned around in middle flight and took acceleration, trying to impale him like a bloody fried chicken. Jaune cursed and rolled out the way of another one, raising his shield to slap the third one. Even if he has got rid of the three arrows, Jaune quickly recovered defensive position, before another couple of flaming arrows pierced the floor where he has been not a second ago.

Cinder was smiling at the edge of the tower, as far as she could from him, with her accursed bow ready to unleash more of those fire things.  Jaune cursed under his breath, as the battle prolonged, his Knightmare would be weaker and he would start to lost pace, against Cinder that was directly suicidal.  This must end quickly,  or he would lose any possible chance of killing this bloody woman. After all he has done, failing to do, one single, bloody thing, would the perfect  epitaph for his tomb.

Here lies Jaune Arc. You only had to do one thing, you dumbass.

Yes, that would be perfect from a joke like him,  but right now, he was still making Cinder squirm  and that was worth the effort.

Thinking, Jaune kept dodging and crushing those arrows with  _Crocea Mors_ and its shield. They may be made  of fire, but at the end of the day they are Aura constructs empowered by the mystic mojo of the Maidens. They are breakable, it was only need a shit ton of strength, something that Jaune had in spades now. Good thing the blood of Galahad gave him superhuman strength, even greater than veteran Hunters, right now, he need ed each single  piece of it.  The burns on his back were half way into healing. Jaune cut short his own Aura healing to focus his Aura in his defense and the feeding of the Knightmare.

F lexing his legs, Jaune rose his shield and started to charge at Cinder, that pointed five arrows in his direction. Her perfect face has already recovered her usual, smug smirk and expression, sure in her victory. Oh, how was going Jaune to rain in her parade…

Meanwhile, the Knightmare and the Dragon were beating the crap out of each other. The Knightmare was unleashing a torrent of attacks, from the  brutal pummeling of the pink war hammer to the devastating slashing power of the nasty scythe. The living  ribbons over her cat ears were strangling any Grimm that came closer to her.

Each time the Dragon was wounded, hordes of Grimm spawned from its blood. The Knightmare was covered by an army of Grimm, but none of them could penetrate her brass and golden armor, the bows kept dealing with those pests as the Knightmare and the Dragon trade blows in mid air.

T he Dragon g o t the upper position and clawed the chest of the Knightmare, caving the brass armor and sending the  Knightmare in a spiraling fall. The Primal Grimm was strong as hell  and even for an Aura constructs, the kind of impacts that,  that claws could produce, hurt like hell. Smashing her entire frame against the side of a tower, the Knightmare crushed dozens of  Grimm under her brass and golden Aura mass. Trying to take advantage of the fall, the Dragon fly straight at the  Knightmare,  wh o throw the white rapier in one of her hands at the Dragon.

I t was an absurd  maneuver , that forced the Dragon to change his fly pattern. Moving right in the path of a descending war hammer that smashed its face and send him against the wall of a wing of Beacon Academy, crushing the entire building  under  its body . The Grimm that it buried alive, were soon replaced by  dozens of black drops that fall from the wounds of the Dragon.  B efore  it could raise  from the building, Knightmare was already on top of it. Stabbing, slicing, pummeling and peeling its body with all she carried.

Massive pieces of black flesh evaporated in the air, each time Knightmare down her weapons, bullets the size of cars entered into the corrupt body of the Dragon, destroying flesh and bones, piercing its scales and butchering it from the inside. But a beast like this did not fall that easily,  its tail lashed out and caved the damaged helmet of the  Knigthmare, sending the female Aura construct flying back.  This respite allow ed the beast to recover and fly into the air too. Roaring its defiance and domination, the beast  charged at the Knightmare.

Claw meet  shield, fangs meet scythe, tail meet war hammer, bullets killed Grimms by the hundreds and they continued trying to kill each other. There was something primal on their fight,  more than the usual Hunters Vs Grimm romance that everyone knew, this battle was something different. It was ruthless, savage, cruel, without any semblance or mercy or order. Two beast trying to tore apart each other.

I f anything, it was like seeing two massive Grimm fought.

Jaune was sick tired of that bloody fire arrows. Those things hunted him worse than a  tax collector and what was worse; Jaune has painfully discovered that Cinder was not a slouch in unarmed combat either. When he has managed to close distance and stab at her, she  h as butterfly-kicked his ass several meters back. Such flexibility was to be admired, Jaune only knew two girls that could twist like Cinder has done, Blake and Militia. 

Dodging and breaking more arrows with the unbreakable blade of _Crocea Mors_ , really, he just loved the bloody sword, Jaune used his shield to bash some more arrows and cut the distances between him and Cinder. Fighting long range opponents was getting ridiculous, he really should have thought about some long distance weapon. Maybe a gun or maybe he should have taken a page from Cocos book and carry a bloody Gatling-gun around, like she does. Cocos weapon was cool as hell, a golden Gatling gun that dispersed high caliber death, capable of piercing Deathstalkers shells like there were not even there.

But no, Jaune has to be a lazy slob and  kept  _Crocea Mors_ as his only weapon.  Now, he really wanted to have even purchased a bloody gun, at last, he could have kept Cinder distracted by the bullets until he got closer. Or could have asked Weiss about how to upgrade  _Crocea Mors_ into a weapon similar to  _Myrtenaster_ , that revolver rapier full of Dust was as amazing as the girl that hold it. Of course, she was still convinced that he was a dunce and an annoyance. Pity, Jaune really had a crush the size of Beacon on  his snow angel; but after the kiss with Pyrrha, finally recognizing the feelings of the girl,  it was too late for that ship to sail.

J aune closed the distance a little more and used his increased and impressive strength to used  _Crocea Mors_ as tool to stab into rocks and throw them at Cinder.  Her face at the image of a piece of rubble that weighted a ton, being toss at her like it was nothing, was priceless.  If anything, Jaune was quite adaptive and soon thought about alternate solutions to the problems that were presented to him.  Unfortunately, there were not a lot of rocks or pieces of the rubble around, that he could use for that purpose, so he had limited ammo.  N ot like  Cinder, that could create those lethal flaming arrows at will and shot at him as faster than he has seen guns being shot.

T he battle was getting uphill for Jaune, Cinder was running around, pelting him with her arrows.  M eanwhile, Jaune was chasing her like a lost puppy and from time to time,  toss a massive piece of the wreckage of the tower at her.  The few times that Jaune has managed to cut the distance enough to attempt some quick slashes at her, she has demonstrated a superb martial skill. However, none of them were free of wounds.

Jaune had burns and bruises, healing quickly but not as quickly as he would like. Knightmare  was constantly draining his Aura reserves at an accelerated rate, it truly was a one shot kind of Semblance. Cinder on the other hand, had her own cuts and bruises to worry about. Jaune was sure that if by some bloody miracle, she managed to survive the night, she will be sporting a lot of new more scars that would marrow her pristine skin. E ven if Jaune died tonight, he wanted the Queen to remember that she could have fallen at the hands of a foolish boy that wanted to be a hero.

Speaking of being a hero, Jaune thought that it was time to do something stupid and reckless. It was a good thing, legends are filled to the brim with stupid and reckless idiots that accomplished amazing things, just because everybody else was saying that was impossible.

Altering his position, Jaune  start running  to Cinder, who smiled and readied more arrows, but instead of what's has been happening the last minutes; Jaune did not raise his shield. Cinder left the arrows go with a slightly surprised expression on her face.  Her expression changed and her eyes widened when she saw how Jaune twirled in mid charge and  imprinting as much force as he could to his left hand, throw his shield like a  Frisbee. The shield of Jaune was not designed to this kind of actions, but between his superhuman strength and the amount of Aura he has put in the shield, it became a flying  buzz saw that  collide with the arrows mid flight and produce a big explosion.

T he explosion was eno u gh to send  Cinder flying against a wall, but before she could recover, Jaune jumped over the smoke,  _Crocea Mors_ ready to strike.  His clothes were burned and his face  blackened by the explosion. Cinder knew that the boy would impale her like a butterfly to the wall if he managed to  finish that attack. Calling all the flames she could, Cinder became a living torrent of flames for a second, a column of  flames that rose to the sky, thundering for the sudden change of heat.

Bu t for Jaune Arc it  didn’t matter.  W ith all the might he carried, he stabbed right into the maelstrom of flames.  _Crocea Mors_ pierced the flames easily,  the flesh behind the trust?, not so much. The smell of charred flesh flooded into the nose of Jaune, a second of searing pain before coldness was the last thing he ever felt from his  left arm, but he achieved what he wanted.  Even if he could not longer felt a thing from the elbow down, the pressure of the tip of the sword piercing something and  sticking in there, w a s all he needed.

C inders scream of pain and surprise totally made his day. Pity that before he could  smile, Cinder channeled at those flames into a torrent, that hit him point blank.

An ocean of orange fury passed over Jaune, that stumbled backwards, blind and  charred, his yellow hair consumed along good part of his face, leaving him with a toothy snarl and half melted flesh in a good  portion of his face.  It was bad luck that his face has taken the worst part of the  desperate attack of Cinder, but his Aura has managed to prevent him to be  decapitated by the tsunami of flames that the wounded Fall Maiden has unleashed. O n the bad side of things, he was blind now. The flames had melted his eyelids. They were two pieces of melted and blackened flesh,  although, behind them there were only a boiled part of whitey pasty things that once were his eyes.

S earing pain and shock, made Jaune kneel, trembling from the sudden pain and blindness, he stood paralyzed  in the wreckage, trying to focus, trying to bear his thoughts out of the pained mist that his entire body was now.

Cinder, pull out the sword of her shoulder, it was just a matter of luck that the accursed Arc has not pierced through her heart with that last stunt he has pull.  Bleeding from the wound of her shoulder, a wound that was not healing.  S he tried to melt the sword in her hand, but for her surprise;  _Crocea Mors_ did not melt, not even under the scorching heat that her empowered fire semblance was pulling inside of the  blade, did the sword melt. It went white hot, but never lost its shape or form. Dumfounded, Cinder snarled and used it to lash at  Jaune who was still in shock.

I t was a lame swing that barely cut Jaunes back. However, it served to put back the mind of Jaune into the game. Until now, his mind was still trying to cope up with the sudden blindness and the pain of his charred face.  After he was cut,  the sudden, cold, sensation of the steel in his flesh, cut through the disarray that was his mind.  Jaune reacted by instinct, punching, with all his might, in the direction that he felt  Cinder was. Cinder raised the sword and strike again.

With a loud and wet splat; Cinders heart splattered against the  wall behind them,  dozens of meters beyond them . With a  metallic noise,  _Crocea Mors_ fall to  the ground, accompanied by the fleshy and liquid sound of the left arm of Jaune Arc falling on top of  the sword; cut from the shoulder to the hand.

I n a twisted and violent parody of a hug; Jaune Arc has his right arm inside of Cinder voluptuous chest, his fist exiting through her back in a crater of broken bones and teared flesh.  Cinder arms hanged lifeless, abandoning the handle of  _Crocea Mors,_ after her beheading strike became a mutilating swing that cut  the left arm of Jaune .

W ith a loud, pained, roar; the  colossal form of the Primal Dragon smashed against the side of the tower. Its head, resting stunned, barely a dozen of meters on where Cinder and Jaune  knelt  in macabre parody of a hug.  The broken and battered remnants of Knightmare loomed over the Dragon.

Knightmare was not in better shape than its creator. She has lost four arms, was “bleeding” Aura from a hundred of gashes, punctures and holes in her armor and helmet. Her eyes were spilling some silvery liquid like tears and the sash in her waist was as torn and ragged along the dozen of bows that lifelessly hanged from one of her broken cat ears.

But the construct pushed with all her remaining might. Knightmare was an extension of Jaunes will, his indomitable will to  improve himself , given form, feed with all the suffering and self loathing the poor knight had. That unique blend of Aura and negative energy, along with the u nique powers of the blood of Galahad; made Knightmare  a powerful and  terrifying enemy, to Grimm, Humanity and Faun us equally.

B oth were on their last leg. The Dragon trashed, trying to get back in flight, as he knew that his position was a  disadvantageous one.  But the Knightmare was faster, extending the damaged, but still functional, arm of the scythe and trapping the long neck of Dragon between the handle and the sharp, inner, edge of the weapon. If the Dragon was not careful, he would slit his own neck with the edge of the scythe, that only leave him one option.

Just like Knightmare expected.

The Dragon tried to slip his way out of the death grip that the K nigthmare has her on.  With desperation, it clawed the brass and golden armor of the Knightmare, burying its claws deep into her sides. But the Knightmare ignored the damaged and pushed the scythe back to her. If, the Dragon  didn’t want to be decapitated by  the scythe, it was forced to move its head forward, trying to duck under the blade and bite into the neck and head of the Knightmare, crushing her head under its devastating maw.

The Dragon moved its head forward,  fang s ready for shredding the throat of the Knightmare. But it  was stopped in mid attack, when a pink wall; more concretely, the entire surface of the head of the pink war hammer that the Knightmare carried in her last arm; broke  its snout and twist his masked face in cracks and broken, bone like, splinters. However, the Dragon had not time to be flabbergasted, stunned or directly pained from the brutal pummeling that its face has suffered. Once his impulse was negated, and the hammer push its head back, the Dragon forgot of the very sharp scythed edge that was coming its way.

W ith all the remaining strength she had left. Her masters Aura was already dropping in a free fall. She used the hammer and the scythe as the blades of scissor, cutting the wide neck of the Dragon in one powerful beheading move and sending the decapitated and broken head, flying over the top of the tower. The strength behind the finishing move was so big, that the head fly over the entire surface of the tower and start to fall on the other side of it. But it disintegrated in mid fall, in a nauseous black  mist, usual stuff for all Grimm, but the mist of the Dragon was thicker and even just seeing it, one could only feel nauseated.

Kn ightmare  didn’t last long either.  Before she could end the swing, her body was already decomposing in the Aura energy that has give her life, along all the negative emotions that Jaune Arc hold in his heart.  The Aura construct was not exactly sentient or intelligent.  B ut she; as she was capable of determining her own gender;  was sentient enough to recognize the negative and positive emotions that conformed her.

The love of her master for his friends and family,  _Fatebounds_ , something that has not been seen in Remnant in centuries. The self loathing that her master felt for himself, a blazing desire of atonement for being useless, a drag, a fool that failed again and again and again.  That was the core essence of Knightmare, a monster created by the positive and negative emotions of Jaune Arc. The boy broke all the bloody molds when he managed to create a Semblance like her at the end of his training.

J aune Arc was blind, pained and in general, feeling like a shit. Not really a surprise, sixty percent of his body was a charred wreck.  It hurts even think about it. His ears, even with the ringing and the dumbness that comes with having some melted flesh plugging them, were capable of picking up the noise of Cinder coughing blood and the squelching sound of his last arm inside her chest. Right on the heart. Talk about lucky shot. His superhuman strength and resilience has saved the day. Three Hurrah’s for  him , he finally d id it. He was going to die anyway, but he did kill the bloody bastard.

“I curse you Jaune Arc” spitted blood Cinder in the charred face of Jaune Arc. He didn’t even notice the wet sensation, his nerves were vaporized in the fire. “In the dawn of my triumph, you managed to destroy everything, but remember, that I am not the only one who serve Salem”.

“Too late, Fail Maiden” really, Jaune would have loved to chuckle, but neither his lungs, nor lips were for the labor. Mockery was the only thing he had left. “I am already cursed, all my kin is”.

“Who are you?”. Cinder noticed how the power of the Maiden started to slip past her control. The same fire that she loved and dominated, was now a raging inferno that will consume her, body and soul. But she would take this knight with her. With all the strength she could muster, she hugged the one arm body of Jaune Arc, channeling the few fumes she had left of her Aura into a crushing hug.

“What are you?”. She corrected herself, closing her eyes as her body started to glow red and orange, advising of the imminent explosion. Considering the powers involved, the strength and the radius of the explosion will be easily capable of vaporizing the tower and a good chunk of the nearby buildings.

But for both of the dying fighters, it would be something that others had to worry about.

“Very complicated”. Almost chocked Jaune in her own blood and bile, trying to answer Cinder. He had nothing left, the only consolation was that the explosion would vaporize both of them and he will have not time to register his body disappearing in ashes.

The only good side of being charred, is that he will not bleed to death. The downside, is that he could possible have a septicemia from the poisoned blood. But those details are for the living, he was a walking corpse right now.  He has made it, and that would be more than enough.  He y, perhaps in his epitaph will be something nice, like “At last he did something useful” or “ Finally, did something right”. Those were not that bad.

“ _ **Why are you rushing to your death, my child?”.**_

N ow it was official, Jaune was  totally out of his mind .  Still,  He expected to  hallucinate way before. The pain and the sudden lost of half of his senses, was more than enough excuse for anyone  brains to refuge in a corner and cry a river.  But, for  a hallucination, it was way welcome than his usual, evil, doppelganger that bitch slapped him with all that was wrong in his life. The voice of Lord Galahad was a welcome change of peace for his last moments.

“ ** _As amusing as always, Jaune, you really should stop berating_ _yourself_ _like that”._**

C hatting with his own hallucination. Not a novelty, but at last he preferred to pass his last moments with a friend. Way better, than alone and in this parody of lovers  last embrace that Cinder and him were performing in their last moment s.

“ _Sorry, my lord, I have been better”._ Joked Jaune with the voice of his mind. _“I have my ass kicked, all way to Sunday, like a dozen of times, and not even my Ichor could do shit about it”._

“ _ **Child”.**_

There was amusement and exasperation in that voice. So familiar with the god that awoke his legacy and gave him hope. The last of his kin, the one that had to carry a heavy burden, at the price of amazing power. For Jaune it was the deal of the century.  H e has to admit that, Lord Galahad s impression of his dying brain was quite accurate.

“ _ **Child, riddle me this; what does a knight have, that a witch has not?”.**_

“No bleeding idea”. Honestly answered Jaune, and the inner voice laughed. With that thunderous voice that was unique to Lord Galahad. Uh, maybe he was the true one and Jaune has made an ass of himself even in his last moments. Well, all his friends said that he was adorkable, if that was a word.

“ _ **Faithful Maidens”.**_

Answered the voice to his own riddle.  Jaune laughed, yeah, Maidens. He has killed one, right now. Okay, he mentally chalked her as the Fail Maiden, but a Maiden nonetheless. His burns and cut left arm was pro of enough. Although, Jaune was convinced that he  could hear the voice of Ruby, crying and screaming at him; calling him back. And of course, he felt the sensation of his body flying, nursed by the Polarity Semblance of Pyrrha. Then the heat come, and a shocking sensation  before his entire body felt like it has been smashed, very rudely, against a hard surface.

At last, the darkness comes.  Not a minute too soon. But as the final moment of a failed knight;  taking down a Fallen Maiden was quite the achievement.

“ _ **Are you sure about that, child?”.**_

  


_Unknown location/Vacuo_

Well, Jaune was sure, until he awoke.

“ _Uh, nice room, love the white and blue colors”._ Was the first thought that Jaune had when he opened his eyes, right before the lights of the room pierced his sensitive, regrown from pasty  remnants, eyes.

Jaune groaned from the piercing sensation. The light stung and made his eyes tear. Wait, what kind of afterlife has pain?. Astonished that he was not dea d , or at  last, seriously hoping he was not. Jaune slowly accustom his eyes to the dim lights of the room. Judging from the window, it must be afternoon. He  didn’t recognize the  scenery, it was familiar. It was similar to the background that his hometown had, but his hometown had a lot more vegetation.  In fact, this room was bigger than his  shared room back in what should be left of Beacon after that bloody Dragon and that bitch of Cinder  screw with the Academy and the City.

Jaune, then realized, that he was pretty much alive.

He was alive, he has survived the battle against the Dragon and Cinder. He has saved the city, or what's left of it. Before he could realize, he was crying like a baby. With the arm he had left, as there was nothing on his left side, except the phantom sensation of a lost arm, he covered his eyes and cried like a baby. His sobs filled the room, as he could not believe that he was alive. Jaune felt a torrent of emotions inside of him and a hundred of thoughts running and tugging in his mind in a hundred of different reactions and ideas.

J udging from his sensations, apart from sluggish and like he had run a dozen of marathons; Jaune was in general in good shape. His flesh was a bit pale, not really a surprise considering that he should look like charcoal after how Cinder puked a volcano on his face. His hair has grown back, a bit shorter than usual, but he always wanted a cut and never found the time,  it has been a bit drastic but he got his haircut. His ears were in the place they should be and do not  looking like burned potatoes.  His nose was equally good and his lips were not worms over charcoal, there was the adequate number of teeth and his tongue was in his place.

Either he has underestimated the healing powers of his unique blend of Aura and  _Ichor_ , or he has been healed somehow into almost perfect health. The empty socket of his pajama spoke volumes of what he has sacrificed for Beacon and his friends, but Jaune know that he would offer the other arm, with a smile, if it was needed.  Jagged and cynical, but Jaune was Jaune at his core and he would face anything to keep his friends and family alive and well. When Galahad awoken him, he left things clear, he was a Knight, and Knights endure.

S till crying, really pondering the possibility that this all was a vivid dream that his dying brain has conjured.  Jaune scratched the flesh under the pajama. It was still sensitive, it must have  grown back recently and even the sensation of the pajamas annoyed him a  little. Speaking of which, like any sane, hotblooded male, he checked that his other “sword” was in place. It has  grown back, much to the relief of Jaune, who really  didn’t want to became a eunuch.

T he twins  demonstrated to him what the pleasures of the flesh was, and even if they were nothing but friends with a lot of benefits; Jaune wanted to enjoy nights like that, all the times he could.  Sue him, he was a bloody teenager after all.  Hormones could do numbers on everybody mind and Jaune was not free of  the problems of a common teenager, Aura or  _Ichor_ be dammed.

T alk about the devil. His  _Ichor_ has kept him alive, but he remembered the sensation of Pyrrhas magnetic touch and Rubys voice when he thought he was a goner. Maybe they carried him to a hospita l ?.  It was among the possibilities, but that would lead to a conversation Jaune was not prepared at all to face. He would face the music if he need to.  B ut frankly, he would prefer to beat an Ursa, barehanded, before explaining what he was now.

People like him are unique in more ways than one. The power would grow in him, so will do the adversities that he would have to face and the enemies that will came his way. It was called _Fateful Aura._ The horrid luck that people like him had, to attract all kind of madness; from hilarious or directly weird situations, to be on the path of a Goliath migration with nothing more than a toothpick and a smile. Although, now that he was crippled, maybe he could step back and enjoy an early jubilation. He has not graduated, but come on, the savior of Vale and Dragonslayer should have some kind of monetary reward no?. There are S-class missions easier than this. Heck, Goliath hunts are way easier that facing a Primal Grimm.

J aune tried to get comfortable in the unknow n bed.  He really  didn’t think this was a hospital, his nose did not pick up the smells that were commonly associated with a hospital. If anything, it was a cozy guest rooms in someones house.  The decoration was minimalistic and  the place did not like it has been used recently, except for his presence on the room. Clearing his tears with the sleeve of the pajama, Jaune sat on the bed and tried to make head or tails about where he was. But first, nature calls.

Dozens of stings and nerve pains came his way when he tried to get out of the bed. The damaged he has suffered against Cinder has torched his nerves and muscles. Now that he was trying to use them again, they were slowly, and very painfully, returning to activity and that hurt like a bitch. Slowly and cursing under his breath the entire way, Jaune managed to stand up in front of the bed.

He raised his arm in victory, and realized that he only had one arm. It was a bit awkward.  Fortunately, there was no witnesses of his embarrassing moment.  Using his right hand to maintain balance, Jaune discovered how hard was to walk with a numb body like he had now. He  didn’t know how much time has he been  out of  commission , but even with his healing  capabilities ,  he would bet over a week minimum.  In a week, lots of things could change. Specially now that Vale must be in shambles and the Atlesian Military appearing like the joke of the  millennium.

J aune has never been one to keep grudges. But taking the control of the entire Atlesian robot army and unleashing them over innocent civilians was something that he could not forgive. Specially, after Cinder revealed that she had put a virus in Irondicks scroll and controlled everything since the bloody beginning. Seriously, General Ironwoods scroll hacked. Is that even possible?. Jaune suspected that the arrogance of the Atlesian military higher ups was the responsible behind this. In all, he was relatively happy that it happened in Vale and show them the idiocy of using robots for everything. One single program in  a harmless update and the entire metal army will butcher those that were supposedly protecting.

He had nothing against robots. He has destroyed hordes of them during his training and they could be the perfect support  for squads of Hunters that had to go deep into the Badlands or has to evac people in hostile conditions. But arming them and using them as the armies of humanity has cost Vale a very high price.  And almost his life, but he was convinced that he was going to die against Cinder and the Dragon anyway, so the robot rebellion was a secondary thing in that front.

Making a pause in his way to the bathroom.  T he white tiles of the floor and the W.C that he was seeing though the door were definite clues about where to go.  He discovered that despite looking peachy, he was having tremendous difficulties even for the short walk that was from the bed to the W.C. This could get ridiculous if he  was in a hurry.

R obots. Jaune really wanted to believe that Penny has made it. The naive robot with Aura  deserved more from life than being a sacrificial pawn to the greed of that junkie bitch of Cinder.  Penny was just discovering the joys of life and  being torn apart by Pyrrhas Semblance, sure was no t in her, to do list . The robot girl wanted to taste pancakes, wanted to have more friends, wanted to go to Beacon with Ruby and the rest of the ladies of RWBY. But Cinders arrogance and greed squashed that dreams, in the name of her own addiction to power and control.

R elieving himself in the W.C. And discovering how difficult it was with only one hand.  Jaune washed his hand and look at himself in the mirror of the room,  later he will use the shower.  H e was  surprisingly clean from one that should look like a charred hamburger.

I n all, he was more or less like he was before he faced Cinder. His skin did look a bit more harsh that he remembered.  L ike it has been tanned, like it was leather, but keeping a healthy pink, if not  sightly paled look.  His blue eyes were still red and swollen for crying and his facial features look a bit more  dry and angular; possibl y because he has not eaten anything since a couple of hours before that clusterfuck in the top of the tower. And that an amount of  unspecified time before he awoke, being more alive that he expected.

J aune sighed, took a deep breath and slowly, pulled down the jacket of the pajama he was wearing.  He need to see.

It  wasn’t that bad, there was a patch of false skin that covered the stump. From the shoulder, Cinder has cut down his left arm with  _Crocea Mors,_ from the shoulder.  F ortunately, it has not cut into the sides. He did not have enough force of will to remove the patch. It was clear that he has lost his left arm for good. No amount of Aura could heal that. Perhaps if his  _Ichor_ grow more powerful, will it  regrow, but it was a big If and there was nothing that could give him any  guaranties about the matter.  For now, he would consider himself a cripp l e  and keep moving forward. He still  has his right arm, and he has always been  right-handed so he could still swing a sword. It was going to be a pain in the ass to accustom, but nothing that can not be done with practice.

Jaune put his left hand over the stump. He shivered, thinking how easily could it have been his head. Only a fluke, the first and clumsy cut of Cinder, give him a clue of what was going on. He reacted by instinct ,  hours and hours of tortu...err, training, under the hands of his uncle Zuria  gave him that kind of reflexes. He put all he had on that straight punch, piercing the Aura of Cinder, her flesh and bones,  until his fist came out on the other side of her body, surely  destroying some vital in his way out .

A t that point he was blind and did not remember  well what was going on.  Just that he need to fight.  I f he had not moved, Cinder would have beheaded him,  instead of his head, she took  his left arm.  It was  quite a miracle that he has survived the ordeal, but he was alive so he could freak out as much as he could right now.

S iting on the W.C, Jaune cried again, hugging his torso with his left arm and clenching the patch of false skin. Gritting his teeth, Jaune was trying to keep his tears at bay and do not wail like a wounded child. He has survived, Oh, Lord Galahad, He has survived!. He could barely believe it.

He didn’t know how much time did he stood there, sat in the W.C of a house that he did not recognize and sobbing for the second time since he awoken back to the world of the living.  He used his  last arm to help himself back up and  with some extra  difficulties , clean his face and red eyes from the second crying season.  What kind of savior he was, crying his heart out?.

S till tumbling a little, Jaune exited the bathroom, just to see how the door of the room opened and Ruby; dressed in some white shirt and black pants, a far cry of her usual style;  entered in the room with a lot of medicines in her arms. Seeing that he was not in the bed, Ruby eyes widened, but before she could start looking for him, Jaune was faster and saluted his good friend.

“Hey Ruby”. Greet Jaune to Ruby that almost broke her own neck at the speed he twisted her head to look at him. “Good to see you, how much Tiii…!!”. The next words of Jaune Arc were lost, when a missile named Ruby Rose, slammed against his mid section and make him fall.

Professional wrestler s would  have been proud of that tackle. Unfortunately, the inertia of the tackle, made Jaune fall and crash his head against the border of the shower. Blackness took over again, much to the mental groaning of Jaune Arc. Seriously, this kind of shit, only happened to him.

T he second awakening however, was a lot more sedated.  And filled of questions and accusations.

J aune was dressed with a borrowed shirt, the stump of his left arm was patently clear for anyone looking at him,  still, the boy did not care three fucks about it.  I nstead, he was looking at  Ironwood with an expression that spoke  of murder  and ill intention .

“Lets be clear here”. Coldly said Jaune, treacherously calm. “Are you telling me, that Cinder had control over your bloody scroll, since the night of the Prom, and you had no fucking idea?!”.

“Cinder uploaded a virus inside the CCTS”. Said Ironwood, as cold as Jaune. “No one knew what was that virus, until it was too late”.

“Ten frigates”. Said Jaune. “Ten bloody frigates, more than five thousand soldiers, among them enough technicians and computers experts to build two CCTS towers”. Enumerated Jaune, still not sure about the numbers but pointing out that workforce was not a problem here.“Weeks, fucking weeks, analyzing even the deepest corners of the CCTS, knowing that there was something there, knowing that there must be something there; after an intruder kicked your elite troops asses ten ways to Sunday; leaving the bloody icon of the Queen in the fucking screen of the main server of the CCTS of Vale”.

Jaune took a deep breath and stared at Ironwood.

“And you had the balls to tell me that no one saw anything?”. Jaune was between amazed and angered. “That, even after Ruby and you, made the intruder scamper and see the bloody icon; you updated your fucking scroll; the scroll that had complete control over a bloody army of war machines; directly from the CCTS and did not triple check the safety measures of your own bloody scroll?!”.

“General”. Jaune sat in the chair that was at his side, tiredness permeating his frame. He was not still recovered from the ordeal. “Are you fucking kidding me?”.

“This is not a joke boy”. Snorted Ironwood. He wanted to talk to the boy, as he has really saved the day with his amazing victory over Cinder and the Dragon, but he was not going to be called like he was some rookie back at the Atlesians training camps.

“Then explain me, how on Remnant did this happen?!”. Shouted Jaune.

B ehind him, the  silhouette of Knightmare appeared on his shadow, her silver eyes fixated in Ironwood like the laser sight of a sniper.  The promise of painful death that emanated from the boy shut Ironwood for a second, as he did not expect such killer intent from a Hunter in training.  N o matter how amazing his achievements were.

“General, you are one of the best strategist in the Four Kingdoms”. Said Jaune and the pain and betrayal in his voice, surprised Ironwood a lot. “Heck, I read your book; “The Conquest of the Frozen Lands”, it was brilliant, I followed your example, I wanted to be as good as you, then, please, just, please, tell me how is possible that a crazy junkie bitch has managed to outsmart you like this”. Jaune massaged his temples.

“Is...just...”.Jaune was at a loss of words and to be frank, Ironwood was too, like it or not, the boy had a point. Cinder has played with all of them like they were puppets on her hands, and the cost of their failure has been too high.

“Just tell me”. Said Jaune massaging the bridge of his nose, this was taking a toll on him too. His emotions were a rollercoaster and he was just lashing at Ironwood, when he was not free of guilt either. “Did Penny survive?, she was a robot too, no?. She could upload herself into the CCTS buffers and send herself to another body”.

I ronwood raised an eyebrow. And for him, it was quite a shocked reaction. Ironwood was more  than half metallic, there was a reason why that drunkard of Qrow calle d him Tin man. The wounds that he suffered during his career were compensated by cybers. The best of the market, some of them were unique experiments of his friend Polendina, the mastermind behind Penny.

“Yes” simply answered Ironwood and see how Jaune deflated like a balloon, tears of relief forming in his eyes.

Before anymore could be said, the door of the room opened and the youngest  daughter of  Summer Rose and Taiyang Xiao Long rushed inside, followed by Qrow and  another group of teenagers,  all alumni from Beacon from what Ironwood remembered.

“Jaune!”. Called Ruby worried. “Are you okay, why were you shouting?”.

“Yeah, who is messing with our fearless leader?, I will break their legs”. Animatedly added Nora.

“Are you okay?” asked Pyrrha in her usual polite tone.

Ren did not need to say anything, just a glance  him and Jaune and the martial art i st know that the conversation with Ironwood was not precisely good news.

“Well, Jimmy, this is a record, even for you”. Laughed Qrow taking a sip of his flask. “You have made the savior of Vale cry, and you own your sorry ass to the boy, who not only has cleaned your mess, but saved the lives of your bloody army before the Dragon could chew your pretty ships like they were chew toys”.

“Shut up, Qrow”. Grunted Ironwood. The general was not in the mood for dealing with the drunkard antics. He could be one of the top Hunters of the world, but he was rude, undisciplined and a drunkard that can not raise from the bed without a couple of liters of booze in his system.

Qrow totally ignored the general and instead advanced to get a good sight of the Arc boy.

“Aren’t you a tough cookie?”. There was humor and concern in the voice of Qrow, he liked the Arc boy. Maybe a little naive, but after being tortured into shape by his uncle Zuria; now that was a man that scared Qrow shitless; the was a lot better and a nice partner to have when the shit hit the fan.

And he was a total chick magnet. The threesome on where he lost his virginity with the  twin sexy things that works o n Juniors  bar was proof enough.  That, an d the longing glaces of the Nikos girl and even if Qrow wanted to trample the body, Ruby had a crush the size of Beacon on him.  This Arc really had the fabled Arc charm,  even if he was dense as a rock on the matter of the heart .

J aune tapped  the stump of his absent arm and snorted.

“Not that tough”. Smiled without humor. “Now, stop being a smartass and toss me that flask, I can smell the Atlas vodka from here, you drunkard”. There was no malice in Jaunes voice, in all, it was like he was speaking with an old friend.

“Ha!”. Barked Qrow. “Sorry chum, this is all mine, you had your own, you know, the one that, that cute squirrel Faunus girl gave you back in Mystral”.

The narrowing of the eyes of Ruby and Pyrrha was all that Qrow need to know that the bloody Arc has done it again. How?, how can this blonde bastard be such a chick magnet?.

“It burned”. Lamented Jaune with a sigh. “I had it in my jeans, when Cinder puked a volcano in my face, it melted along half of my left leg, not sure, I was blind at the time”.

It may have look like Jaune was diminishing it, however, the slight shudder that he tried to hide was visible to all his friends. Jaune was trying his best to hide the phantom pains and cold  terrors that he was still experimenting. Like an odd PTSD, Jaune knew has recovered physically, but from time to time, he froze, remembering the soul searing pain that he endured.  And the stump did not help, of course. A constant reminder of what he has lost.

“Ah, shit”. Simply stated Qrow with his usual bluntness, but tossed the flask to Jaune.

Catching it with his only arm, Jaune took a long gulp from the flask, much to the amazement and surprise of his friends, who  didn’t know that Jaune could drink like that. In fact, they have never s een him drinking anything stronger than one of those sodas that he liked.

“Oh, for the love of god, this is like antifreeze”. Cursed Jaune, but toss the flask back to Qrow. “How on Remnant can you swig that and do not die of cirrhosis, is something that I would never understand”.

“You are young in the way of alcoholism”. Laughed or better said, barked Qrow in humor.

“Old man, remember that I put you under the table in Vale”. Pointed out Jaune. “You are the one that faint like a little girl after a dozen of “Grimm blood” specials of Junior”.

“Cocky little bastard”. Grumbled Qrow under his breath.

Ruby blinked and the rest of the friends of Jaune blinked too. They were still trying to process the information they had received. Jaune drinks?, drinks so much that he could  surpass a drunkard like Qrow,  in a drink competition. Qrow, who was a veteran Hunter and like the other Hunters; thanks to his Aura, could  drink barrels of alc o hol  like it was nothing ?.

“This is an aspect of you that I would have never believed”. Commented Ren, eying his friend, who blinked at his friends and tried to hide his head inside his shirt, like a turtle. Completely embarrassed for those old memories.

“Sorry”. Come the faint voice of Jaune, whose face was red as Pyrrhas air.

I t was a good thing that Ironwood took that moment to interrupt and channel the conversation back to more productive ways. Otherwise, Nora, Pyrrha and Ruby would have  hugged Jaune to death. For the three girls, it was like seeing a very  cute golden puppy, trying to hide his adorable face.  In Noras case, a golden haired sloth, but for each their own.

“I see you have not changed”. Commented Ironwood, with a disdaining glance to Qrow, who ignored it like a pro. It was an old discussion between the two of them, and wasn’t going to end soon. “But I still need some information about what happened in the tower”.

“A direct live feed and you still need more?”. Snorted Qrow. “Wow, Jimmy, the Atlesians sure has gotten lazy after they delegated their job in all those tin men, pity how they turn coats and killed hundreds if not thousands of civilians, uh?”.

T he jab was totally intended to hurt. Qrow was in the middle of the battle,  dealing with the clusterfuck that was a Grimm invasion AND the betrayal of the robots. Too many lives lost, the robots were not a serious challenge for Grimms like Ursas or Deathstalkers, but they were more than enough to kill civilians by the dozens. And Qrow see it happen, dozens of times, as he tried to make a line to the Tower where Amber, the previous Fall Maiden, was supposed to be.

“Enough Qrow, this is not time for your antics or your clever remarks about what happened”. Cut short Ironwood, that really didn’t want to lost time in consummated facts, but instead focus in more important things.

“Mister Arc, when you were fighting Cinder, you demonstrated knowledge about secrets that are not of public domain”. Explained Ironwood, back to the main point of the discussion before Jaune almost bite his head off. “And you claimed that you were in possession of an item that pierced the illusions of the criminal called Emerald Sustrai, an item made of Grimm pieces, is that right?”.

“First, I will not say a word about how did I learned about the Maidens or who is the real queen bitch behind all this disaster”. Said Jaune looking into the eyes of Ironwood. “As your Cabal had your secrets, the Arc had their own, on the second part, I am afraid that, that concrete item, was destroyed during the battle, possibly. I had no idea, I have not seen my things since I awoke this morning”.

“About that”. Interjected Pyrrha with a sad expression. “We could recover _Crocea Mors_ , but your shield was torn apart, we picked up all the pieces that we could, but the mechanism and a good chunk of its surface, is broken beyond repair”.

“Shit” sighed Jaune. “Well, I only had one arm now, if _Crocea Mors_ is in one piece, then I still can fight”.

“Mister Arc”. Keep pushing the matter Ironwood, he has already dealt with a serious screw up in the information filtering department. He was not going to have a dangerous person like this young Arc running around with secrets of the state in his head. “I will not pry into Arc secrets, you are correct, but you must tell me, who informed you about the truth behind the Maidens and the name you casually toss around”.

“Zuria Arc”. Said Jaune and secretly enjoying how Qrow almost choked with this alcohol and Ironwood stiffened like an iron bar. “Good luck trying to get something of him” chuckled Jaune, really enjoying the reactions of the adults.

“ _You know, it would be cool if at some point, my name could create actions like this”_ thought Jaune Arc, and he really should have thought twice about that kind of desires. Never tempt _Fate_ , it is always ready for a good challenge.

_P_ _rivate Laboratory of_ _Doctor Polendina/_ _Atlas Capital_

A t the end, it resulted that  he has been out of  commission for a week.  Jaune was amazed of the healing capabilities of his body,  truly the unique blend of Aura and  _Ichor_ was a wonder. Of course, only people who had a sliver of connection with the original legends like Galahad, had any hope of achieving such transcended status. But even with all of those miracles running  through his veins, the battle with Cinder and the Dragon has taught Jaune two very valuable lessons.

One, you are as mortal as everybody else, only harder to kill.

Two, there is always someone stronger, nastier and harder than you out there.

If it  weren’t for his Semblance, Jaune was convinced that he would have not endured a minute  against Cinder and her bloody Dragon pet. And Cinder was a minion, Jaune shuddered to think what kind of monster Salem truly was.

The Battle of Vale has not ended in a positive note precisely. Even if the Dragon and the responsible of all the mess were arrested, there was thousands of casualties. Not to mention, the awkward moments on where people realized how much of an ass, they have been and how they were turning their backs to the only ones who gave a fuck about them. Of course, there was people that grumbled and nagged like bitches about how the Hunters were to blame for all these. There are always assholes like that. Not to mention how suddenly, any aspirant to the title of Councilor came out of the woodwork, claiming about the incompetence of Hunters, responsibility, damages and all kind of bullshit that has nothing to do with the fact that Cinder has played them like fiddles.

Like it or not; after the colossal fiasco that the robot army resulted to be, Hunters are once more, the last line of defense of Humanity and Faunus against the Grimm. Of course, no Councilor ever approved of the Robot army idea, no, no, they always trusted they stalwart defenders, yadda, yadda, yadda. Usual political stuff; pointing out fingers in all directions as they hide their own messes under the rug. Truth to be told, Jaune was not all against the Robo initiative. It has sense and at the same time, it was completely idiotic.

Not all machines are like Penny. Penny is unique, a machine with Aura, a machine with a soul. That granted her the ability to told any program to fuck off; if something suddenly started to upload a “Kill all flesh bags” program in her subroutines. It made her vulnerable to manipulation, although, as she was still a naive girl that knew nothing of the assholery of the Remnant people in general.

Not much after his return to the land of the living, Jaune traveled to Atlas. In a big and comfy Bullhead, pity that Jaune passed more than half of the travel with a vomit-bag  in his hand and with his head in the lap of Pyrrha. She really was an angel of mercy. Jaune never understood the stinky eye of Ruby and the triumphant smile of Pyrrha, but he was really busy with his own nausea to ponder that behavior.  He could survive to more than half of his body, broken and charred, but  he nauseated  like a bad thing,  o n  any flying machine . There must be someone up there, that get its kicks with Jaune suffering. Lord Galahad the first of the list,  his patron was funny like that .

A tlas was a freezer on this time of the year, but thanks to his powers, it was easy to Jaune to adapt to any climate. The rest of his friends need some extra clothing although, something that granted him some nasty glares from his ap p arent resilience to everything.  JNPR and R Y made their entrance in Atlas with two missions on their minds.

The first one would be get Jaune and Yang, some n ew cybernetic arms.

At the beginning Yang was depressed as hell, as no one has believed her about her innocence, until the video of the battle with Cinder came, and Emerald Sustrai was arrested. Coco and Yatsuhashi were less than pleased when they knew about what happened and really wanted a piece of the illusionist thief. But she  was soon taken by  Atlesian soldiers to a special  confinement facility. A place where her illusion will do not good for her.

J aune took  a Yang out of her funk, by calling bullshit to her attitude to her face. Yang punched him to the other side of the wall, but  Jaune rose from the ground walked back to the room and continue sho uting to the blonde brawler  about why she should stop mopping and start looking for the rest of her team.  It must be said that Jaune did a couple more  flies by punching  in the face , but at the end, Yang got the message and accompanied them to Atlas.  After they got new and shiny arms, as disturbing as it could sound, and they had accustom ed to them. The two teams could start looking for the two lost members of RWBY, namely, Weiss and Blake.

T hat was the second objective.

Somewhere in Atlas, Blake has been sighted, hunting down a cell of the White Fang and Weiss was with her father, in the Weiss main building, in the middle of the city.  Weiss and Blake  disappeared in the confusion of the aftermath of the Battle of Vale. After Ruby, Weiss and Pyrrha rescued Jaune ass from the explosion that consumed the body of Cinder Fall, Weiss was called by his father, back to Atlas. Blake never forgave herself for what Adam did to Yang. The arrogant terrorist cut  one of Yangs arms , after he shoved his katana into Blakes gut.

I t was clear to Jaune that both Ruby and  Yang were distressed about the  fate of their teammates and to be honest, so was Jaune. But he and Yang were useless now, so Jaune cut a deal with Ironwood. The location of Zuria Arc, for  two, state-of-the-art, cybernetic  prosthesis for him and Yang.  Jaune has even s ketched the designs and all. Ruby and Nora helped, they were determined to get them, the coolest arms ever.  Ironwood  accepted the deal and Jaune asked for a very specific doctor. Doctor Polendina, the “father” of Penny. I f someone was capable of create the best cyberarms in existence, was the same man that created the wonder that was Penny.

And Ruby and Penny would be ecstatic to knew that each other was alive and good. The destruction of Penny was a heavy burden between Pyrrha and Ruby, and perhaps seeing the mechanical girl alive would do good to both of them. Or so hoped Jaune Arc, still a foolish child that hoped for the best  even after all that happened.

T hey  soon got  into the laboratory where the surgery was going to take place. Jaune was a nervous wreck, meanwhile Yang was surprisingly ok ey . The upbeat girl has recovered quite fast from her depression, something that made Jaune happy. Yang was not a girl that should be gloomy, she was, as her name stated, a fiery Dragon. Being all emo in a cave, was not the natural state of Yang.  Jaune on the other hand was not all that sure about all this. He really wanted a cyber netic arm , to be able to be in the field again, but the stars in the eyes of Ruby and Nora and their whispers about hammer s , drills,  guns and coolest ever, did little to quell his nerves.

Ren took all of this in stride, much like Pyrrha, who was trying to cheer Jaune up. Once they meet Doctor Polendina, it was too late for running, so Jaune prayed to Lord Galahad in his mind, and along Yang, entered into the main lab of the Doctor. There will be the arms that the Doctor has been crafting for them.

They sent the  designs to his lab by CCTS and by the time they reached Atlas Capital, the two pieces of tech were ready to be plugged in.  For what Jaune know, the doctor has  cut all brakes , with the project. Penny even helped with the last touches and the implementation of the defensive and offensive capabilities that Jaune and Yang wanted for their new prosthetic.

D espite Rubys insistence, Yang  didn’t want  anything extravagant.  Ruby was all about putting all kind of weapon options and the sort, and Yang loved to see her sister dorking like that over  her weapon , but she was a brawler at heart.  The new arm was pretty much a sturdier, Dust empowered version of  _Amber Celica_ , her signature weapon. Still, Ruby made the impossible to add an extra feature, that will turn the fist of the arm into a pneumatic hammer, making Yang punch anything dozens of times per second. Jaune shuddered  when he imagined how would it be, to be on the other side of that smashing machine .

But  Jaunes,  was the jewel of the crown. Jaune commit the grievous mistake of trusting Nora and Ruby with the features of the weapon. The boy only wanted it to have a collapsible shield; made with the pieces of the shield of  _Crocea Mors;_ to display the twin golden arcs o the Arcs on it and  to be as flexible and unbreakable as it could be.  Then Ruby and Nora picked up the sketches and go town with them.  Jaune, observed the results and became torn between  freaking out and hug Ruby and Nora to death.

I n appearance, it was a  shadowless steel colored arm, with the twins arcs  in the biceps.  But the real deal was the features it had.

First, the shield, a perfect replica of his old shield, made from the scraps of the previous but with a Dust empowered system that magnetized it. Jaune could throw it like a bloody  Frisbee and using the magnets  on his arm , it will fly back to him.  Jaune joked with Pyrrha about how they had elevated the game of Frisbee to a new level with that one.

Second, the revolving Dust chamber that he had on his forearm.  With a thought, he could display a Dust gun that had  four revolving chambers,  and will use  four different effects depending on the quality and nature of the Dust on them.

On the model that Polendina has installed, Jaune could use Fire Dust, turning gun into a flamethrower; he could use Ice Dust,  essentially creating a cryo gun;  he could use Electric Dust  that would became a taser or a devastating electric gun  and  finally,  a mix of hyper dense  metallic pellets with Electric Dust,  that would turn the Dust gun of his forearm into a portable rail-gun.  About two hundred projectiles before having to reload the cartridge, with the same ammo that the Mecha-shifing Heavy machine guns, Hunters uses daily . A ll of this  doesn’t spoke of the enhanced strength of the arm, way stronger than the usual Hunters, Aura be dammed,  or the hardness of the arms, that would le ft titanium as wet cardboard.

P ennys idea. It has to be, Ruby and her were mailing each other since day one and they crafted this together to turn Jaune into some kind of bloody one armed war-machine .  Yang was laughing her ass off, putting a robotic voice and making gestures with her far more comfortable and  simpler cyber netic arm .  Well, at last Jaune was not seeing drills anywhere, that was something. O f course, he would never, ever, tell any of them, that he had stars in eyes too at the image of what his new and shiny arm can do. He would never live it down.

But when they entered the surgery, and were  anesthetized for the implantation, the last thing Jaune suspected, was that the premiere of his awesome arm was going to be assaulting the Schnee building.  Right  into a desperate rescue attempt of Weiss  and  his father  from that arrogant asshole of Adam, before he  could kil l Blake for protecting her friend  and advising the Schnee of the  assassination attempt .

_ Fateful Aura _ , Jaunes ass.

As Scion of Galahad, the White Knight, he should have  known better, that the “adventures” never ends.

However, Jaune was still asking himself...what the hell has happened to his blue bunny pajama?.

 

 


End file.
